How Social Media Provides a New Angle for UNC Football

The North Carolina Tar Heels football team, with its new Head Coach Bill Belichick, and a brand new roster featuring over 70 new players (tons of names to learn), has been at the top of the media's attention this year. Since the hiring of Coach Belichick, it has been hard for him to stay away from the headlines.

From the recruiting trail, ACC Kickoff this year, to recently Fall Camp, giving intel to reporters about behind-the-scenes details. UNC has not had this much attention in a while (maybe during the offseason ahead of the 2022-2023 men's basketball season after it made a national championship appearance), and for it to be in football speaks to how much times have changed.

Tar Heel fans have been seeking a change in the football program, and now they are about to witness an eight-time Super Bowl champion navigate the gridiron inside Kenan Stadium, the same one who coached quarterback Tom Brady.

If it were not for the media, Max Johnson, who suffered a severe injury last season, quotes like the following may have never been revealed:

• "Well, I kind of knew it was pretty serious as soon as it happened. I couldn't tell if it was my knee or my femur, or my leg. And I remember getting up and put my shoulders around, you know, the trainers who were carrying me off the field. And as soon as I got picked up, my leg kind of slipped out."

• "I kind of felt it dangling. And right then and there, I knew it was my femur. And then I remember being in the hospital and, you know, went through a couple surgeries. And it was tough, man, laying there in the bed, not knowing what was going to happen, how long I was going to be, you know, in the hospital. And I really just didn't know. There was a point in time where I thought I was going to lose my leg."

• "And I got blessed to be able to, you know, continue to play football. And, man, what an honor it is just to be back playing. So, I mean, all the coaches believed in me. And I kind of believed in myself. And the Lord kind of put me in this position to glorify him through, you know, kind of what I'm doing. And, man, what a journey it's been."

Quotes like these are why it's important for reporters, and the use of social media to share the message is how everyone is able to tell these kinds of stories.