Bill Belichick Just Conducted His First Job Interview for Next Season. With ... UNC???

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As much as I've enjoyed witnessing The Year of Belichick, with this driven, ambitious genius getting away from the singular focus on winning and having a few months to stop and enjoy life's simpler pleasures:

… we all always understood it couldn't stay this way forever. Achievers gotta achieve. As good as he is in the podcast sphere, on the Manningcast and stopping and smelling the roses with the love of his life, it's not natural for him to not be grinding away on 18 hour days spent looking through game tape to find tells in opposing offenses and inventing new ways to rush the kicker. On some level, all that carefree enjoyment becomes like having a chimp for a pet. Sure, you can dress him up in little human clothes, teach him to ride rollerskates and smoke cigars. But deep down, you know it's wrong. He should be in his native habitat. Among his own kind. Flinging poop at his enemies as nature intended. 

But still, I never saw this coming:

Source - Six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick interviewed for the head coaching vacancy at North Carolina this week, Inside Carolina first reported Thursday. He's among a group of candidates the Tar Heels have spoken with since firing Mack Brown on Nov. 26, a list that Inside Carolina reports includes Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall and Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann, among others. Inside Carolina first reported Sunday the initial contact between Belichick and UNC officials.

This is a bit of a shock to the system, I'm not going to lie to you. If I or anyone I know ever speculated about the possibility of Belichick going to CFB to coach, it was him going back to his roots and coaching Navy, where he learned out to break down film while sitting on his father's knee. But going to Chapel Hill to take over a program that hasn't won the ACC title since 1980? Never. 

Not to mention the whole life as a college coach. Humping all around the country to sit down around the proverbial coffee table trying to convince some 18 year old's parents you're the better option for their little meal ticket than Virginia or Wake Forest. Selling them on how much NIL you can scare up. Only to lose them South Carolina. Or worse, get him and lose him to the transfer portal after a season? I can't believe that's any life for a man who struck fear into the hearts of the most powerful agents in pro football for decades. And don't try to convince me he's got some emotional pull to UNC just because Lawrence Taylor went there.

My guess is this whole exercise was just for the life experience. To find out how the other half lives. What his pals Nick Saban and Bill O'Brien went through. And practice for the interviews to come from the several NFL teams who have already fired their coach (Chicago, though definitely NOT the Jets) or will shortly (Jacksonville, the Giants). Unless for some bizarre reason he's not going to get NFL interviews, in which case everything I know about anything is entirely wrong. But then, it's been that kind of a year.