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Stephen A. Smith crushes Bill Belichick after disastrous North Carolina debut

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Stephen A. Smith unsurprisingly had plenty of thoughts on Bill Belichick‘s North Carolina debut on Tuesday’s “First Take.” It started literally seconds into the show as Smith mocked ESPN NFL analyst Jason McCourty, who played 3 seasons under Belichick with the New England Patriots.

“I hope you’re OK, because that ass whipping your former coach took was so bad, you might not be alright,” Smith joked.

Things started well enough for the Tar Heels as they took a 7-0 lead on their opening possession. That’s about the only thing that went well for them, though. The Horned Frogs opened up a 20-7 halftime lead and added 28 more in the second half en route to a 48-14 win.

“When you look at the North Carolina Tar Heels, they were awful. And I mean God awful,” Smith said. “And the quarterback, Gio Lopez, you lucky if they don’t come to you and ask for their money back. $4 million in NIL money for you? You lucky if they don’t come to you and ask for their money back. It’s pretty damn bad how awful they were (on Monday).”

Belichick’s legacy is tied, of course, to Tom Brady, a point Smith made note of while alluding to the lack of success Belichick had after Brady left New England after the 2019 season. The Patriots were 29-38 from 2020 to 2023, Belichick’s final season, making the playoffs just once in that span.

“Even though I don’t feel that way, I think we need to prepare ourselves to hear a chorus of individuals saying, ‘So it really was Brady, huh? It really was Brady.’ Because this is bad. This was very, very bad,” he said.

“And we’ve heard that from Bill Belichick on too many occasions. ‘We got out-coached, we got out-played in every phase, blah, blah, blah.’ We heard that a lot since Brady departed from New England.”

Sydney Hunte

Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.