Bill Belichick has survived a full season in Chapel Hill. Two of his key assistants have not.
Via Pete Thamel of ESPN.com, Belichick has fired offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens and special-teams coordinator Mike Priefer.
Kitchens, the head coach of the Browns in 2019 and the interim Tar Heels coach in 2024, stayed on after Belichick was hired last year. Belichick brought Priefer to UNC after two decades in the NFL, and two years out of football.
Priefer was a member of Kitchens’s staff in Cleveland.
Belichick will now be hiring two new coordinators as he prepares for his second second at UNC. If it doesn’t go much better than his first season, there may not be a third.
And coaching only goes so far. At the college level, it’s about the quality of the players. For 2025, the Tar Heels didn’t have enough good players. They’ll need better players if they want to have a better outcome in 2026.
Throughout Bill Belichick’s 24-year tenure with the Patriots, his right-hand man was Berj Najarian. But when Belichick landed in Chapel Hill one year ago, Najarian already had another job.
Now, Najarian is available. Via Kevin Stone of New England Football Journal, Najarian is leaving Boston College. (The report was confirmed by Karen Guregian of MassLive.com.)
Najarian served as coach Bill O’Brien’s chief of staff, taking the job after the Patriots fired Belichick in January 2024. Now that Najarian will be a free agent, the next question is whether he’ll officially re-partner with Belichick at North Carolina.
Unofficially, there’s been an apparently ongoing connection to Belichick. An April 2025 email from Belichick regarding publicity for his book (which Jordon Hudson for some reason posted on social media), showed “Berj” as a recipient. Which raised an interesting question regarding whether and to what extent Najarian (unless Belichick would be sending the email to some other “Berj”) was collaborating with the head coach of a conference rival to his current employer.
If/when Belichick brings Berj to North Carolina, there will be a fairly sizable elephant in the room. As reported by Pablo Torre, Najarian was one of multiple key Patriots employees who complained about Mike Lombardi during his stint with the Patriots, resulting in Lombardi being ousted (he has claimed he left to write a book of his own).
Lombardi is now the G.M. of the UNC program. Lombardi’s presence could potentially make Najarian unwilling to work with Belichick again. Which could, in theory, force Belichick to choose between Najarian and Lombardi.
It’s not some minor point. Najarian was, by all appearances, the most trusted member of Belichick’s staff in New England. Everything went through Berj.
Here’s how ESPN.com characterized Najarian’s job duties, in 2011 (as found by Guregian): “Point-person for day-to-day operations of the team and acts as liaison across football and non-football departments. Najarian manages several elements of head coach Bill Belichick’s off-field agenda, including football and stadium operations, player and staff communication, scheduling and personal requests. In addition, Najarian manages various special projects in coaching and player personnel.”
That could create a separate complication, as it relates to Hudson. Belichick’s girlfriend seemingly has morphed into much of the Berj role. She may not want Berj around. And Berj may not want to have to coexist with and/or tiptoe around her — especially after she reportedly made a bizarre FOIA request to North Carolina as to communications between Senior Associate Athletic Director Robbi Pickeral Evans and CBS regarding, apparently, the disastrous interview that sparked a torrent of unflattering coverage and criticism of Hudson and Belichick.
However it plays out, Berj is in play to join forces again with Belichick. Where it goes from here will be particularly interesting, possibly awkward, and potentially fascinating.
Bill Belichick is a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Another coach who’s laying the foundation for a bronze bust of his own hopes Belichick will return to pro football.
“I’ll be honest with you, I miss him not being in the league,” Broncos coach Sean Payton told reporters on Wednesday. “I miss him not being in the league, and I wouldn’t be surprised, and I would be somewhat hopeful that he ends up back in the league. We’d all be better for it. He’s something.”
Belichick’s buyout costs a miniscule, for NFL owners, $1 million. But there’s no clear indication that anyone would want to hire him, given the latter years of his time in New England (which included putting a defensive coach in charge of the offense), the pettiness he and his consigliere, Mike Lombardi, have displayed toward the Patriots specifically and the NFL generally, his 2025 performance at North Carolina, the baggage and distractions he’d bring with him in a return to the pro game, and his reputation for hoping to take over the entire football operation in lieu of simply coaching the team.
Belichick should have a no-debate, no-brainer case for Canton. He should automatically gain entry. He’s one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. Failure to put him in immediately would undermine the credibility of the entire selection process.
That doesn’t mean Belichick currently is a viable candidate to become an NFL head coach.
Still, 31 teams can say “no way.” It only takes one to whisper, “Why not?”
The college game clearly isn’t for Belichick. For plenty of pro teams that haven’t won many games in recent years, they could do a lot worse than Belichick. And they have.
It nevertheless feels like an uphill climb. Which creates an interesting irony. It will be much easier for Belichick to gain a spot among the all-time immortals than it will be for him to get another opportunity to coach one of the NFL’s franchises.
While he’s currently the head coach at the University of North Carolina, Bill Belichick was officially named a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026 on Wednesday.
Belichick is the coach nominee for this year’s class, advancing from the nine Semifinalists in the category. The eight others were Tom Coughlin, Mike Holmgren, Chuck Knox, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seifert, and Mike Shanahan.
“To be in this position is extremely humbling,” Belichick said in a statement released to social media on Wednesday. “I am honored to be named the coaching finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026. Thank you to the selection committee and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I am thankful for the organizations and thousands of players and coaches that I worked with for my 49 years in the NFL. This is a cherish able reflection of all my teammates throughout my NFL career.
“Congratulations to the other finalists Roger Craig, Kenny Anderson, L.C. Greenwood, and of course, Robert Kraft.
“I hope to see all of the deserving Patriots selected this year.”
Belichick has an overall record of 333-178 in the NFL — second only to Hall of Famer Don Shula’s 347 career NFL victories — and won 31 of 44 games (.705) in the playoffs as head coach of the Browns (1991-1995) and Patriots (2000-2023). Among his numerous accolades, Belichick is a member of the NFL 100 All-Time Team.
Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft are finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026.
The Hall announced Wednesday that Kraft is the contributor nominee and Belichick the coach nominee in the next class of inductees. Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and L.C. Greenwood are the seniors finalists.
The remaining bar to clear: Approval from at least 80 percent of the members of the full selection committee at their annual meeting next year in advance of the class unveiling during Super Bowl LX week in San Francisco.
For the second year, the finalists from these categories within the selection process are competing directly against each other under bylaws the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors approved in 2024. The revision to the process helps ensure the exclusivity of inclusion in the game’s most elite fraternity.
Each member of the selection committee votes for only three of these five finalists. With the bylaws revision, a maximum of three of this year’s Finalists can be elected. If none of the five individuals receives 80 percent approval, then the individual who receives the most support would be elected to the Class of 2026.
Kraft, the owner and CEO of the Patriots since 1994, has seen his team win six Super Bowls and play in four others. All with Belichick as his head coach.
Kraft has also served on 17 owners committees, including the broadcast/media committee since 1997, which he has chaired for the past 18 years.
The other eight semifinalists in the contributor category this year were K.S. “Bud” Adams, Roone Arledge, Ralph Hay, Frank Bucko” Kilroy, Art Rooney Jr., Clark Shaughnessy, Seymour Siwoff and Buddy Young.
Belichick, the current coach at the University of North Carolina, has an overall record of 333-178 in the NFL — second only to Hall of Famer Don Shula’s 347 career NFL victories — and won 31 of 44 games (.705) in the playoffs. Among his numerous accolades, Belichick is a member of the NFL 100 All-Time Team.
The eight other Semifinalists in the Coach category this year were Tom Coughlin, Mike Holmgren, Chuck Knox, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seifert and Mike Shanahan.
Anderson played his entire career for the Bengals, 192 games overall through the 1986 season. He finished his career with four Pro Bowl nods, a league MVP award for the 1981 season and 32,838 passing yards with 197 passing touchdowns.
Craig won three Super Bowls with the 49ers, where he spent eight seasons before a year with the Raiders and two with the Vikings. For his career, he totaled 13,100 yards from scrimmage and scored 73 touchdowns. He was named the league’s offensive player of the year in 1988, when he also finished third in MVP voting.
Greenwood, a member of the famous “Steel Curtain” defensive units in the 1970s, played his entire 170-game career over 13 seasons with the Steelers. An undrafted free agent out of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Greenwood won four Super Bowl rings, was named a first-team All-Pro defensive end twice and was selected to play in six Pro Bowls.
Also advancing to the semifinalist stage in the Seniors category were Henry Ellard, Joe Jacoby, Eddie Meador, Stanley Morgan, Steve Tasker and Otis Taylor.
Players in the seniors category last could have appeared in a professional game in the 2000 season.
When Bill Belichick arrived at North Carolina, the question was, “How long will he stay?” After a 4-8 season, the question has become, “How long will they want him to stay?”
Via Greg Barnes of Inside Carolina, UNC is committed to Belichick “for at least another year.”
The disappointing season has sparked concerns that it’s not going to work for Belichick at the college level. However, a quick scuttling of the experiment would spark a total buyout in the range of $30 million.
Not everyone agrees. Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News & Observer makes the case for writing the checks and ending it now.
“He was always a bad fit as a college coach, a role where, unlike the NFL, your public demeanor is a big part of the job,” DeCock wrote.
“What’s it going to cost North Carolina to move on? What’s it going to take for Belichick to save face? What’s the price of a reset button? Whatever it costs, it’s time to pay it. Whatever has to happen behind the scenes, it’s time to do it. They broke it. Now they’ll have to buy it.”
Or to continue to tolerate it, hopeful there’s a light switch Belichick and his consigliere, Mike Lombardi, can accidentally find in the darkness. Lombo’s plan to bloat the roster with freshmen is a bold choice. They need better players. That means finding the right ones, picking the right ones, and recruiting the right ones.
At the college level, it’s about quality of players. North Carolina was unable under Belichick and Lombardi to get enough good ones for 2025. They’ll get another chance to do it in 2026, apparently. (That said, an argument could be made to require Belichick to find a new G.M. for the second try.)
If it doesn’t work 2026, why would anyone want to see whether 2027 will be any different? Currently, some have seen enough to conclude it won’t work in 2026.
Bill Belichick’s first season at North Carolina ended with a 42-19 loss to N.C. State, dropping the Tar Heels to 4-8. After the game, Belichick seemed to be a little salty, even in comparison to his usual press conference demeanor.
Here’s the full session, all four minutes of it.
The first question focused on whether there were any common themes from three straight losses to end the season. Belichick’s response was brief and unintelligible.
Later, Belichick was asked about the things that made his first season at UNC a challenge.
“We’ll take a look at the season later,” Belichick said. “Just finished with the game ten minutes ago, so.”
Later, a simple and fair question: “What did this season teach you, Coach?”
“Yeah, we just got done with the game, OK?” Belichick said. “So . . . yeah, so we’re not gonna do a season recap. I’m just finished with the game here. We’ll do a season recap when we get done, you know, alright? I mean, sorry.”
The same concept came up again.
“I mean, look, the season just ended a few minutes ago, and so now we’re gonna move into the offseason,” Belichick said. “That’s what we’re gonna do.”
One reporter tried to explain to Belichick that they won’t have access to him moving forward, and that they’re simply asking about the plan moving forward. Belichick still wasn’t having any of it.
The dismissive attitude works when a coach is winning. When a coach is struggling, it has a much different feel. As I’ve said time and again about Belichick, if he wants to avoid answering fair and reasonable questions from reporters on a regular basis, he should go coach high-school lacrosse — and be compensated accordingly.
He works for a public institution now. He makes $10 million per year from that university. He’s the primary face and voice of the football program. Short, chippy, and argumentative answers become an even worse look when he’s working for a school that is funded by the people and that ultimately belongs to them.
The practical impact is that, as Belichick moves forward to his second season, the same reporters he has stonewalled will be the ones shaping the narratives around the program. And, quite possibly, making the case for Belichick to be fired after a second bad season, if 2026 is a repeat of 2025.
Bill Belichick’s first season as a college football coach started with a thud. It ended with one, too.
North Carolina lost on Saturday night to N.C. State, 42-19. The outcome leaves Belichick with a 4-8 record with the Tar Heels.
Belichick has previously reiterated his commitment to returning to UNC in 2026. The apparent lack of NFL interest simplifies the decision.
Some think one or more pro franchises will explore hiring Belichick, who can leave at any time for a buyout of only $1 million. However, he has received only one interview during two hiring cycles since the Patriots fired him after the 2023 season.
The 73-year-old Belichick took the UNC job last December, apparently due in part to the unwillingness of any NFL team(s) with a current or expected vacancy to indicate that he’d be hired. This time around, he’s available to be discreetly interviewed. If anyone chooses to interview him.
If no one does, Belichick can once again declare that he’s not leaving. And G.M. Mike Lombardi can once again claim how much better college football is than the NFL.
Jordon Hudson, the 24-year-old girlfriend of 73-year-old North Carolina coach Bill Belichick, recently said she’s suing Pablo Torre. Earlier this week, Belichick was asked about the development.
“How much of those distractions seeped out into the team?” a reporter said. “How much time do they take from what you’re trying to accomplish? And is there a way to in your mind kind of try to eliminate some of that drama?”
“Yeah, I’m just focused on the game,” Belichick said, referring to the season finale against N.C. State. “That’s what our team’s focused on.”
It’s hard to imagine that the situation hasn’t trickled into the locker room, at some level. With all those players, one of them surely saw something about the looming (supposedly) lawsuit — or about the social-media skirmish that followed between Hudson and Torre.
If Hudson is getting good legal advice, and if she’s following it, she’d be saying nothing about the situation. Her willingness to try to prove via Twitter that Torre made “MANY inaccurate and materially defamatory” statements (if she thinks what she posted is some sort of smoking gun, good luck in court) reveals to the trained eye a significant degree of naivete regarding how the litigation world works.
It makes her potential case seem, in my opinion, unserious. It makes her seem, in my opinion, unserious. It makes the whole thing look like, in my opinion, a way for her to remain relevant after the UNC football season ends in two days.
It also reflects poorly, in my opinion, on Belichick. If, as many believe, he still wants to get back to the NFL, this kind of stuff won’t make him any more attractive to owners than he otherwise is.
That currently seems to fall somewhere between “not very” and “not at all.”
Yeah, sure. It only takes one team. And yeah, sure, there are more than a few dysfunctional NFL teams. It’s hard to imagine even the most dysfunctional team welcoming Belichick to town — and trying to sell him to the media and fan base — after the cumulative events and developments of the past 12 months.
Should he be elected without hesitation to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the coming weeks? Definitely. Have the accomplishments that make Belichick worthy of a no-debate, first-ballot enshrinement been obscured by a variety of other factors since he last won a Super Bowl seven years ago?
Absolutely.
Jordon Hudson, the 24-year-old girlfriend of 73-year-old future Hall of Fame NFL coach (and current North Carolina coach) Bill Belichick clearly loves attention. If she follows through on her latest claim, she’ll be getting far more attention that she ever could have bargained for.
Hudson posted on Instagram that she’s suing Pablo Torre, the podcasting journalist (or journalisting podcaster) who has devoted multiple episodes to the Belichick-Hudson relationship.
Based on the photo accompanying her “I’m suing you @pablotorre” message, she apparently will focus any legal claims (if any legal claims are made) on Torre’s contention from May 2025 that she was “banned” from the North Carolina football facility.
Setting aside the question of whether “banned” meant “she’s no longer allowed to work at a place she was never employed in the first place” or “they’re barricading the doors and calling security if she shows up,” a potential defamation claim would include an important hurdle, while also potentially opening Pandora’s box.
Hudson has become a public figure. The “actual malice” standard would apply. When a public figure has allegedly been defamed, it’s not enough for the statement to be false. The public-figure plaintiff must show that the party making the statement knew it was false or acted with reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity of the claim.
Beyond that, the discovery process would be rigorous — and potentially entertaining. The harm caused by defamation is determined largely by assessing the impact of the false statement on the plaintiff’s reputation. This requires determining the plaintiff’s reputation before the false statement was made. Which opens the door to all sorts of questions and other inquiries that the plaintiff may regard as irrelevant, annoying, and otherwise unfortunate consequences of pulling the pin on the litigation grenade.
Once upon a time (a long time ago), I practiced law. Even in non-defamation cases, I said to potential clients, “Think about the one thing about yourself that you wouldn’t want others to know. If you go forward with this case, you need to assume many others will find out about it.”
Before Hudson sues Torre (or anyone, for that matter), someone with a law degree and experience practicing law needs to explain that to her. She’ll be inviting a degree of scrutiny that will make the various New York Post articles look like puff pieces in the preschool newspaper.
It also would likely entail a sworn, multi-hour (and possibly multi-day) deposition of Belichick, who would not be able to grumble his way around answering questions he doesn’t want to answer.
So, no, it would be a bad idea to sue Torre. From the perspective of someone who runs a media company, it would be very good for business.
