North Carolina put Michael Lombardi on leave. The Bill Belichick era has reached a crisis point
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It’s easy to argue that Bill Belichick is the greatest coach in pro football history. He’s won more Super Bowl rings (six) than anyone else, plus two more as an NFL assistant.
It’s also easy to argue that Belichick as a college coach has been, at least to this point, the biggest flop in recent college football history. No one questions his acumen when it comes to Xs and Os. The problem — and it’s been an enormous one — is that he completely botched the most critical hire on his staff and torpedoed North Carolina football in the process.
Belichick’s first big move after getting the job was that he entrusted his general manager job to his old pal Michael Lombardi, naming him UNC’s GM after he took over in Chapel Hill. What’s followed has been a remarkable dumpster fire, and we actually only now may start to get a clearer picture of just how unwieldy this all may be.
On Monday, North Carolina placed Lombardi on administrative leave pending an HR investigation.
The Athletic reported Monday that Lombardi’s leave is connected to a human resources complaint, according to three people briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak publicly. We do not know the specifics of the investigation or the scope of it. The Athletic has also learned that the UNC football program has been approached by the College Sports Commission about a potential investigation, according to two people briefed on the matter but not authorized to discuss it publicly, with Lombardi’s actions believed to be of interest. The CSC is a year-old enforcement body that looks into potential violations of name, image and likeness and revenue-sharing rules and approves third-party deals with athletes.
Here’s what we do know about Lombardi’s time in Chapel Hill: Arrogance plus incompetence is a lethal combination.
North Carolina hasn’t always been very good at football. UNC has had only one double-digit-win season in the past 30 years, but it’s been a long time since the Tar Heels have been this much of an embarrassment in football. Yes, they had a 2-9 season under Larry Fedora a decade ago, but it didn’t feel like they were the laughingstock of the sport.
They are now.
UNC is paying Belichick $10 million a year. Lombardi earns $1.5 million, making him the highest-paid GM in college football.
From the moment Lombardi, who hadn’t worked in college football since the 1980s, arrived on a college campus last year, he was convinced he knew better than everyone else working in college football did about their sport and their jobs. He ran off seasoned personnel folks and missed on plenty of player evaluations. A few weeks after getting the job, he proclaimed that they consider North Carolina the NFL’s “33rd team.” (This “33rd NFL team” didn’t have a single player drafted from Lombardi and Belichick’s 41-man roster overhaul, the first time UNC hadn’t had a player drafted since 2016.)
“You just don’t understand what it takes to play in the National Football League,” Lombardi told UNC staffers dismissively, sources told The Athletic last year.
It feels more as if they are making North Carolina merely the ACC’s 18th team, let alone the NFL’s 33rd. Last season, UNC went 2-8 against Power 4 opponents and finished the season losing to the ACC’s other three in-state programs. The Tar Heels got blown out by a Wake Forest team that hired its coach, Jake Dickert, a week after Belichick took over. At season’s end, after the Tar Heels finished 4-8 overall (two wins against FCS foes), Lombardi abandoned transfer portal recruiting to go all in on high school recruiting.
Knowing what it takes to play in the NFL isn’t necessarily the same thing as knowing what it takes to win college football games. Just as working in an NFL facility isn’t the same as working on a college campus. It’s questionable whether Lombardi had figured that out by now. Though many at the NFL level will be quick to point out that Lombardi hasn’t done anything meaningful there, either.
Al Davis on Mike Lombardi in 2008: “Mike Lombardi has been fired from every job he’s ever had. Every job. He can’t get a job. Last year he was fired from a job he was working for for nothing. He was fired from Denver. But he does have ability. He does have some ability.” https://t.co/ZEEzVkSbgD
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) July 27, 2026
At this point, it feels like Belichick and Lombardi couldn’t have screwed this all up worse if they tried. Did Belichick really have to bring his GM back for a second season? Freddie Kitchens, his offensive coordinator last year, got the boot after UNC ranked No. 120 in offense. Special teams coordinator Mike Priefer was fired right after the season. Belichick hung onto Lombardi for a second season, but it now seems like a stretch that the GM will make it to the season opener.
Training camp starts Wednesday in Chapel Hill. A Week 0 rematch in Ireland looms against the TCU program that spoiled Belichick’s big home debut last year and beat the Tar Heels 48-14. It seems like addition by subtraction might be the best thing for the Tar Heels at this point.
