Belichick era unraveling in North Carolina?
Divided locker room, recruiting violations among the allegations
Good morning, all! I hope your Thursday is off to a great start!
Reports are surfacing that “decision makers” at the University of North Carolina are meeting to discuss a “possible exit strategy” for football coach Bill Belichick. The website tarheel247 (Most of the story is behind a paywall.) claims the football program under the first-year coach is in shambles. There are allegations of a divided locker room between Belichick’s recruits and recruits under former coach Mack Brown, recruiting violations, the suspension of the cornerbacks coach, which could be tied to the aforementioned violations, and even a fight in the locker room.
On Tuesday it was revealed that North Carolina had pulled out of a documentary with Hulu about Belichick’s first year as coach. Belichick is in the first year of a five-year, $50M contract. He gets paid $10M annually. The first three years of the deal are guaranteed.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Boston Globe wrote a feature story about the excitement Belichick had brought to campus for the upcoming season. Tickets were selling at a record pace, bars around the school campus were anticipating a huge business and the buzz was something Tar Heel football had never witnessed. Then the season started and it has been all downhill.
North Carolina got blown out in Belichick’s first game against TCU, 48-14. Fans were leaving the sold out stadium, which included notables such as Michael Jordan, Lawrence Taylor and Aaron Boone (The Yankees manager’s son is a student-coach on Belichick’s staff), by the third quarter. After wins over Richmond (an FCS school) and Charlotte, UNC has been embarrassed by UCF and Clemson. The Tar Heels are at California Friday night and the game will be televised by ESPN.
WRAL, a Raleigh-based television station, has also done an exposé about the dysfunctional program. Here it is:
With all that is emanating from Chapel Hill, you have to wonder if Belichick could be coaching his last game for UNC Friday night.
Here are some other thoughts as I prepare for Week 6 of Picks for Kicks:
Week 6 of the NFL season starts tonight and the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles are seven-point favorites against the Giants, who are the home team. Take the Eagles and give the points. Brian Daboll could be coaching his last game for New York. I will have my other four picks Friday or Saturday.
Your starting QB for the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday at Green Bay is Joe Flacco. Cincy is a 14-point underdog.
I have always loved baseball music at ballparks. There was a time you could name each team’s organist. But like everything else, it seems, the ballpark organ music has gone over the top. Yankee Stadium might be the biggest offender. The organist plays constantly between each pitch. It doesn’t matter if the home team or visiting team is at bat. Give me the days of music in between innings and an occasional “CHARGE” to rev up the crowd. If that makes me sound old, so be it.
You know what else I miss? The starting pitchers warming up before a game near home plate and not in the bullpen. The opposing pitchers would flank home, taking their warmup tosses. Below is a picture of Whitey Ford, warming up to the right of home plate, before Game 1 of the 1961 World Series:
The NCAA has approved a plan that will allow Division 1 college athletes to bet on pro sports. You read that correctly.
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. As always, thank you for subscribing!
DAN