Belichick Has Gone Full Supervillain by Banning Patriots Scouts From Chapel Hill

Peyton Williams. Getty Images.

"You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your fuckin' fingers and say, 'That's the bad guy.' So… what that make you? Good? You're not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie. Me, I don't have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth. Even when I lie. So say goodnight to the bad guy! Come on. The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you. Come on. Make way for the bad guy. There's a bad guy comin' through! Better get outta his way!"

--Tony Montana

Some villains are born evil. Some achieve evilness. Others have evil thrust upon them. 

And there are times when an otherwise decent person seeking to just go about their lives gets pushed too far by the rest of humanity, and starts doing evil things. Think Walter White. Arthur Fleck in Joker. Oswald Cobblepot becoming the Penguin. Carrie. And now, if multiple published reports are to be believed, Chapel Bill Belichick has broken bad on his former employers:

Source -  Bill Belichick has banned Patriots scouts from attending UNC practices to scout their players, multiple sources confirmed to the 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,” a UNC athletic source told the Herald, via text.

Patriots scouts can still receive film on UNC players and call their staff for information on prospects.

Belichick and the Patriots initially announced a mutual parting of ways in January 2024. Patriots owner Robert Kraft changed his wording to say he “fired” Belichick while appearing on “The Breakfast Club” in October 2024.

“The Dynasty,” a 10-part docuseries on Apple TV+, was viewed by some critics as a Belichick hit piece. …

Kraft later said he was disappointed in how the docuseries focused on controversies instead of the team’s success. The Patriots owner also recently said he plans to put a statue of Belichick next to the recently unveiled statue of Tom Brady. …

Former NFL scout John Middlekauff first reported that Patriots scouts were banned from UNC practices on his “3 & Out With John Middlekauff” show.

Look, no one was more critical of The Dynasty than I was. They took the greatest sports franchise of the 21st century and reduced it to a True Crime docuseries. With a somber tone, ominous music, slow motion reenactments like Robyn Glaser swinging a hammer down a hallway on her way to destroy Spygate tapes. And all of 10 seconds and two highlights dedicated to the 2003-04 teams, the most dominant back-to-back seasons in the history of the league. And through it all, Belichick was treated like the CEO of a company that dumps toxic waste in the groundwater instead of the mastermind behind all that success. If he's cheesed off about the way he was portrayed, he should be. He's not alone in that assessment:

So it's somewhat understandable if he sat down to watch the documentary he cooperated with, one about the titular Dynasty he built with sheer will, determination, and galaxy brain thinking, and was outraged by the way it was edited to make him look like a garbage human. And no surprise if that show was his Winter Soldier trigger words. Longing. Rusted. Seventeen. Daybreak … that sent him into Coldblooded Killer Robot mode. 

But this response is the most unBelichickian thing imaginable. Yes, he's great at holding a grudge. For 20-plus years, most Patriots fans considered it to be one of his most endearing qualities. I'm speaking about myself here. 

But there's a difference between having a special place of hatred in his heart for the Jets or telling Tom Jackson "Go fuck yourself" 10 minutes after winning your second Super Bowl or occasionally running up the score, and this. All his previous grudges helped his team. It created an "Us Against the World" mentality. Forged a "They Hate Us 'Cause They Ain't Us" ethos. A "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you" mindset that inspired his troops.

This action doesn't pass the Que Bono? test. No one benefits. Least of all, the players he's recruited. Or future recruits. Or, by extension, his football program. And therefore, himself. How does he sit across the metaphorical living room from the proverbial parents of an abstract high school prospect and sell them on North Carolina. "If your son plays for me, he'll have access to NFL scouts. Well, the NFL scouts of 31 teams. Those other guys can piss up a rope as far as I'm concerned."

And no one's buying that business of receiving film on UNC players and calling their staff for information. If that's all that was required, GM Bill wouldn't have made all those trips to all those Pro Days to watch guys in person. Are we now expected to believe that has no value and he just flew all around the country for over two decades just to get off Nantucket for a while? 

Dare I say, the most unBelichickian thing about all of it is this is thinking emotionally. The most rational, logical, unfeeling robot brain the sport has known seems to be letting his feelings get in the way of doing what's best for his football team and himself. I can't imagine what factor in his life could be causing him to act so rashly and immaturely. I mean, what's changed over the last couple of years? It's a real mystery. 

But something did. He's pulled a Hollywood Hulk Hogan Bash at the Beach heel turn. Only this time in doing so, he's doing an Atomic Leg Drop on his own football program.

UPDATE: Since I posted this, UNC has brought the circle of wagons in a little tighter: