When it comes to the decisions folks make in their private lives, I’m firmly in the do-whatever-you-want-as-long-as-it-doesn’t-hurt-anyone camp. But when objectively unusual personal decisions overlap with professional duties, it’s fair game for commentary.
Enter former Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who took the job at North Carolina in large part (we believe) because no one planned to pursue him for another NFL job for now — and possibly for good. Because UNC is a public institution, emails sent and received on school accounts fall within the scope of the relevant open records laws. And an interesting little twist has emerged, thanks to the legal requirement that emails reflecting public business can’t be hidden from view.
Matt Hartman of TheAssemblyNC.com has obtained emails from Belichick to North Carolina officials directing them to copy his 24-year-old girlfriend on certain messages sent to him. Although the copy of the specific email posted by Hartman focuses on “social media and web content,” Hartman adds that she was copied on other emails, including whether to accept interview requests.
That meshes with Hartman’s characterization of Belichick’s instruction as a blanket directive.
Is it “wrong,” per se? No. Is it normal? You decide.
Normal or not, the situation underscores the notion that she has become extremely involved in everything he does professionally. It has happened, we’re told, at NFL Films. It was one of the issues that contributed to the scuttling of North Carolina as the focal point of what would have been the 2025 version of offseason Hard Knocks.
Making the situation even more bizarre is that most pro football observers would have picked the 72-year-old Belichick as the least likely NFL figure to let something like this happen. Belichick is the ultimate “do your fucking job”/no distractions football coach. As recently as two years ago, Belichick would have openly mocked any other coach who would have allowed a 24-year-old girlfriend to insinuate herself so thoroughly into the coach’s professional existence.
And while no one in league circles is openly mocking Belichick yet, there are plenty of private utterances the go something like this: “What the hell has happened to Bill?”
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