Jan 11, 2024; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft (left) and Patriots former head coach Bill Belichick (right) and hold a press conference at Gillette Stadium to announce Belichick's exit from the team. Eric Canha-Imagn Images

Belichick’s UNC Experience: More Football, Less Politics

Originally posted on North Carolina Tar Heels on SI
By Grant Chachere | Last updated Aug 23, 2025 6:00 AM ET

It’s safe to say that North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick wants to be in Chapel Hill.

He’s been the talk of the town, he has been enjoying coaching his players and he loves the fact that he can evaluate and add as many players as he wants instead of a 53-man roster. However, you can also say that he enjoys it because he doesn’t have to deal with owners.

In an interview with The Boston Globe , he may have thrown shots at New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and his son, Jonathan.

“It’s a much more cohesive, and I’d say unified, view of what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it,” Belichick told The Boston Globe's Ben Volin this week, speaking about the differences between coaching in the NFL vs. college. “It’s a lot of football, and there’s not much in your way."

"There’s no owner, there’s no owner’s son," he added. "There’s no cap, everything that goes with the marketing and everything else, which I’m all for that. But it’s way less of what it was at that level."

This Isn’t the First Time

"The one that got questioned the most was in 1999," Kraft said on the "Dudes on Dudes" podcast co-hosted by Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski last month at Fanatics Fest.

"I gave up a No. 1 draft pick for a coach that had only won a little over 40% of his games to get him out," Kraft said. "I don't know if there are any Jets fans here. I think getting Bill Belichick to come to the Patriots in 1999 was a big risk, and I got hammered in the Boston area, but he was with us for 24 years."

"And we did OK," Kraft added, sarcastically

"As I told Robert multiple times through the years, I took a big risk by taking the New England Patriots head coaching job," Belichick told ESPN in response to questions. "I already had an opportunity to be the Head Coach of the New York Jets, but the ownership situation was unstable."

Belichick said he was told by multiple people not to take the Patriots job and remain with the Jets, who had just hired him, despite the instability.

"I had been warned by multiple previous Patriots' coaches, as well as other members of other NFL organizations and the media, that the New England job was going to come with many internal obstacles," Belichick said. "I made it clear that we would have to change the way the team was managed to regain the previously attained success."

Belichick did not acknowledge or mention Kraft at any point in the book. When asked about the book during an interview with Tony Dokoupil that aired April 27 on CBS's Sunday Morning, Belichick said it focused more on his personal experiences rather than the ones he had with Kraft. When pressed on why Kraft was not even mentioned in the acknowledgments, Belichick paused for several seconds before responding, “Correct.”

This article first appeared on North Carolina Tar Heels on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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