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There is a “real chance” Bill Belichick won’t even be coaching the North Carolina football team in Week 1, reporter Pablo Torre has claimed in bombshell comments on Monday.
It all comes down to the language in the contract Belichick signed, which states the buyout drops from $10 million to just $1 million on June 1.
“I think there’s a chance, an absolutely real chance, that he doesn’t,” Torre said on The Domonique Foxworth Show when asked if Belichick will coach that first game.
“And the reason I say that is because even before the Jordon Hudson thing became public, even before it went from messy backstage to now obviously messy everywhere, the date that matters most is June 1.”
Do you think Bill Belichick makes it to Week 1 with UNC after the recent reporting about his relationship with Jordon Hudson?
— The Domonique Foxworth Show (@FoxworthShow) May 12, 2025
"I think there's an absolutely real chance that he doesn't." – @PabloTorre pic.twitter.com/tzRhlklOeS
Some persistent media speculation has wondered aloud this offseason if Belichick secretly harbored a desire to get back to the NFL, and if that June 1 date could provide him with an option to get out of his current position, although that talk never seemed practical.
Belichick signed a five-year deal with North Carolina that will pay him $50 million, and Section 13 of the contract confirms that Belichick would owe the school $10 million in damages if he terminated the agreement before June 1 and just $1 million after that date.
Anticipating his speculative early departure from the school as a media talking point, Belichick has tried to get out in front of that narrative, flatly indicating he had no such desire.
“I didn’t come here to leave,” Belichick said at his introductory press conference, arousing some applause from those in the room.
Michael Lombardi, who Belichick hired as general manager of the football program, has strongly criticized reports that the coach was looking to get out of UNC.
“I’m loud because I think so many of [the rumors], especially the one that keeps going on, is being generated by someone who doesn’t like our program, who doesn’t like me, who doesn’t like Coach Belichick,” Lombardi said on The Pat McAfee Show this offseason.
He added: “They keep kicking something that doesn’t exist.”
Torre previously reported that North Carolina effectively banned Jordon Hudson, Belichick’s girlfriend and handler, from the football facility after a series of unwelcome headlines detailing her apparent involvement in managing the coach’s public image.
But the school refuted that report, saying that, while Hudson is not an employee of North Carolina or its athletic department, she was still welcome at the UNC football facility.
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