Bill Belichick explains why North Carolina canceled Hard Knocks: 'We're not in training camp'

North Carolina was set to host the first-ever college football edition of the long-running series Hard Knocks this offseason. However, the Tar Heels backed out of the deal ahead of the 2025 season.

UNC head coach Bill Belichick cleared the air surrounding the reason why the program decided to not be featured in the show during an appearance on the Pivot Podcast with Ryan Clark. With various rumors and speculation surrounding the situation, the Tar Heels coach’s answer was fairly straightforward.

“Hard knocks is training camp, and we’re not training camp. We’re just not,” Belichick said. “That’s not what we are. The drama of training camp, who’s a cut and all that. Like, we’re a season, and they don’t want that. Yeah, there are film issues too, but forget about the film issues. Just say you could straighten all those out, Hard Knocks just didn’t fit for us.”

The show Hard Knocks has historically followed NFL teams during their fall training camp ahead of that respective season. It gained popularity by showing what these pro football players go through behind the scenes.

Popular storylines typically include contract disputes, rookies trying to make the cut star players with big personalities. All this has helped the show maintain its reputation over the years as a must-watch show for NFL fans.

When North Carolina was announced for the show in February, it wasn’t more than a week later that reports revealed the Tar Heels wouldn’t be participating in the show. Fans were disappointed to hear the news as their team had backed out of the show, but it appears as though there was more to the situation than was on the service.

At the time, speculation surrounding Belichick’s girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, and her role in the outcome of this situation. After the show was canceled, The Athletic wrote a report detailing how Hudson served an “instrumental role” in the halt of production. This is just one case that fuels the rumors of her sway behind the scenes, as there is reportedly a growing concern from North Carolina officials over Hudson’s influence.

Whether this will impact the Tar Heels’ performance on the field remains to be seen, as at the end of the day Belichick was hired for one reason — to win UNC football games. The six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach will begin his college coaching career on Sept. 1 when the Tar Heels open the regular season against TCU.