Bill Belichick is going back to school, but does that mean he is officially done with the NFL?
The six-time Super Bowl champion head coach has become the new head coach at the University of North Carolina less than one year after his exit with the New England Patriots.
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Belichick joins Pete Carroll, Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban as notable head coaches to make the change from the NFL to NCAA. While Saban went from college to the NFL and back to college to finish out his legendary career at Alabama, Carroll and Harbaugh eventually returned to the professional game after successful college coaching stints.
At 72 years old, Belichick has signed a five-year contract to coach North Carolina, according to the school. While that would indicate he is invested in building up the Tar Heels' program, ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio is curious if Belichick's contract could allow his to reverse course and return to the NFL.
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"I want to see what's in his contract as it relates to his path to the NFL," Mike Florio said on "PFT Live" Thursday morning. "Nick Saban had in his Dolphins contract the ability to go back to college anytime he wanted and after two years, he said 'I'm out.' What does Bill Belichick have as it relates to the possibility that he can bolt North Carolina whenever he wants?"
Belichick did not land an NFL head coaching gig last offseason despite there being seven openings outside of New England.
ESPN's Seth Wickersham reported Thursday that Belichick is "disgusted" by what he believes the NFL has become, with one Belichick confidant calling his switch to UNC "a big f--- you" to the league. Still, what happens if an NFL owner changes their mind about Belichick if he puts together a successful first season in North Carolina?
"I think he's at least going to do a year," Florio said of Belichick at UNC, "but what happens if he has this massive impact, there's this Belichick resurgence, everybody loves Bill and one of these owners decides, 'Well, maybe I should bring this guy in next year even though he's going to be 74 next year. Maybe I should bring him in.'
"What kind of language is in the contract that lets him walk away from that job if he wants to? Going to be curious about that. Again, no guarantee anybody is going to want him, but will he build in language that he can go back to the NFL?"
Belichick has already brought along former Patriots staffer Michael Lombardi to be the Tar Heels' new general manager. NBC Sports analyst Chris Simms said the way Belichick builds out his staff will be an indicator of just how serious the former Patriots coach is about staying in Chapel Hill for the long haul.
"I think we'll be able to figure out a few things by who he hires, where he goes over the next few weeks and some of those types of situations to give us a little more info about how long he's going to stay here and how serious he is about North Carolina," he said.
