Bill Belichick appears to be holding a grudge against his former NFL team.
The North Carolina head football coach has barred New England Patriots scouts from attending his team’s practices to scout Tar Heels players, according to a new report from the Boston Herald.
In a statement, an unidentified member of UNC’s athletic staff told the Boston Herald: “Why would we let them in our home after how he’s been treated since he left? We will help our players, but being treated fairly is a two-way street.”
There has been plenty of beef between the Patriots and Belichick, who won six Super Bowls with the franchise during his 24-season tenure as head coach, following the 73-year-old’s exit in January 2024. While Belichick’s exit was deemed mutual at the time, team owner Robert Kraft later said that he was fired during an interview in October 2024.
Kraft also called Belichick a “pain in the tush” in the 2024 Apple TV+ docuseries about the Patriots, “The Dynasty.” Many believed the docuseries painted Kraft in a positive light, with former players criticizing it for being too negative on Belichick. In the same offseason Belichick left the Patriots, ESPN reported that Kraft warned Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank “not to trust” Belichick when the team was interviewing the former Patriots head coach for the same role.
Belichick has taken a few perceived swipes at Kraft and the Patriots as of late. Most notably, he didn’t mention his former boss once in his recent memoir, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football,” that came out in May.
In July, Belichick fired back at Kraft for saying that the Patriots took a “big risk” in hiring him in 2000.
More recently, in August, Belichick told The Boston Globe that there’s “no owner” and “no owner’s son” when he was asked about the differences between the NFL and the college game.
Kraft seemed willing to smooth things over with Belichick earlier this week. He recently told WBZ-TV that he’d like to put a statue of Belichick outside of Gillette Stadium, right next to the one the team recently unveiled of Tom Brady.
“When that great 20-year era ended, it was always my intention to commission a statue for both Tommy and Bill when their respective careers were over, playing and coaching,” Kraft said. “When Bill’s coaching career ends, we look forward to sitting down with him and having a statue made to be right next to Tommy.”
Belichick’s coaching debut at UNC began with a dud on Monday. The Tar Heels were blown out by TCU, 48-14, in one of the most lopsided losses in Belichick’s head coaching career.
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