Bill Belichick explains referring to UNC as the 33rd NFL team

After having one of the greatest careers of any NFL coach in the history of the sport, Bill Belichick is trying his hand at the college game. There, he’s looking to lead the North Carolina Tar Heels as a professional program.

Belichick has gone so far as to refer to UNC as the 33rd NFL team. That’s a term he explained during an appearance on SportsCenter during the ACC Spring Meetings in Amelia Island.

“Everything we do is a pro model,” Bill Belichick said. “Head coach, general manager, and we want the players to develop professionally to their maximum football level, academically, and as a pro in life. To be ready to go into wherever life takes them, whether that’s owning their business, or working for a company, or whatever that happens to be. So, they’re all life lessons.”

College football has been accused of being more professional in recent years. In particular, NIL has allowed athletes to get paid, and the Transfer Portal allows for easy movement. That creates a kind of annual free agency, though it remains different from the NFL in that there aren’t multi-year deals. At North Carolina, the Tar Heels are attacking those changes with an operational system similar to how an NFL team would use, like adding Michael Lombardi as the general manager.

Bill Belichick also still sees that there are unique differences between the NFL and college. That’s the academic side, and making sure that players who won’t turn pro are also ready for their lives following football.

“It’s similar to the college to pro that we used to have in the NFL when the college kids became pros,” Belichick said. “But now high school players and college players are getting monetized. So, there’s an element of a professional job in football, as well as the academic scholar athletes.”

As an NFL head coach, Bill Belichick had stops as a head coach with the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots. Between both stops, he has a career record of 302-165 in the regular season and 31-13 in the playoffs. He has six Super Bowls as a head coach.

Bill Belichick addresses transition to college football, biggest adjustment at UNC

Despite his NFL success, Bill Belichick has never coached in college. Now, he’s working to handle the transition as well as possible.

“Football’s still pretty much football. I mean, the players are younger, but they don’t have as many bad habits and some good habits, so it’s just more of a developmental aspect to it. It’s really just getting to learn a new team, you know I haven’t worked with any of these players before, so getting to know the ones [previously] on the team and some of the ones coming in the portal. And we have some freshmen coming in in June,” Belichick said.

“So there’s a lot of newness there. But it’s starting to come together, and it’ll continue to come together and build. I’m just excited about the upswing for the entire year. It’ll be a long process, but just want to get better day after day after day and keep stacking those good days together.”