The University of North Carolina will officially announce Bill Belichick as their next head coach on Thursday, which is an unforeseen destination for one of the NFL’s all-time great coaches.
After a year away from the game, expectations were that Belichick would draw significant interest during the upcoming coaching carousel.
Among the teams speculated to have potential interest in Belichick was the New York Giants, assuming they move on from Brian Daboll (and/or general manager Joe Schoen) after the season.
Belichick has never been shy about his adoration for the Mara family and the franchise, where he served as an assistant coach and coordinator from 1979 to 1990. Despite his two crushing Super Bowl losses to the Giants, he always spoke highly of the organization and its former players, much to the dismay of his own players.
But even had Belichick opted to wait for Black Monday to gauge potential opportunities, Seth Wickersham of ESPN reports that the Giants were never going to be in play.
Maybe the Giants, where he had spent the ’80s, could work, but Belichick knew that it would be a rebuild, with the New York press at his heels. Plus, he believes the team would do best to retain its current coach, Brian Daboll.
Ah yes, the seemingly permanent rebuild in East Rutherford. The reset button has been hit so many times that everyone has lost count, and even Belichick’s love of the organization couldn’t overcome the reality of what he would have gotten himself into.
But again, there is no guarantee that opportunity would have even presented itself. While the Giants have become a complete laughingstock, co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch appear resistant to further change, fearing they have grown too impatient in recent years.
Accordingly, expectations remain, at least as of Week 15, that both Schoen and Daboll will return in 2025 while Belichick leads the Tarheels.
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