North Carolina football player arrested, another charged in traffic stop

The North Carolina Tar Heels and head coach Bill Belichick are 2-0 heading into an important game against the Clemson Tigers, but it still feels like this is a program behind the 8-ball.

The Tar Heels hired Belichick ahead of the 2025 season off the strength of his NFL resume, because he had never coached a down in college football. 

To be fair to UNC, he has quite an impressive resume at the NFL level. He won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, and he has another two Super Bowl rings as a defensive coordinator as well.

That's elite stuff, but the Belichick college football era has been messy, to say the least.

There are the storylines surrounding his 25-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. There is his son, defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, on indefinite medical leave as lawyers have been investigating whether or not he was using drugs on the job or even providing them to players.

There's Belichick's right-hand man, general manager Michael Lombardi, stepping down amid scandal.

There are low-level recruiting violations, and now there are players being arrested.

Two North Carolina players arrested

According to Spencer Haskell of On3, freshman wide receiver Keeyun Chapman was arrested on a misdemeanor gun charge on Tuesday night that stemmed from a traffic stop. Fellow freshman wideout, C.J. Sadler, was a part of that traffic stop, and he's being charged with driving 60 mph in a 35 mph zone.

“We are aware of the incident involving UNC football student-athletes Tuesday night in Chapel Hill. We are cooperating fully with the University and local officials, and will have no further comment while gathering additional information," UNC said in a statement.

Both players are listed as "out" on the initial availability report for Saturday's game at Clemson. Only Sadler has played so far this season, as he's caught four passes for 73 yards in the early season.

Chapman was a four-star recruit out of Jackson, Alabama. Sadler was a 4-star recruit out of Detroit, Michigan.

Chapman was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed weapon, a handgun. Sadler was charged with one count of speeding. In the police report, it was indicated that 15.1 grams of marijuana were seized from Sadler's vehicle and that the driver had been reported an hour earlier for reckless driving.

Per Haskell, two other North Carolina players were in the car, but they are unnamed and unconfirmed at this time.