Bill Belichick takes shot at Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk over NFL reports

Bill Belichick‘s longstanding feud with the media took an interesting turn recently when reports surfaced earlier this month that he’d yet to formally sign his contract as North Carolina‘s head football coach.

The 72-year-old Belichick was formally announced as UNC’s next head coach on Dec. 11, but didn’t technically sign the proper documentation until late last week, prompting some to speculate the six-time Super Bowl champion was possibly entertaining a return to the NFL amid another wild offseason coaching carousel that still had multiple openings entering the final week of January.

That included NBCSports.com’s Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, who embraced the rumor and suggested Belichick could be in play for multiple NFL openings, including the since-filled Las Vegas Raiders and Dallas Cowboys jobs.

For his part, Belichick has maintained his focus on North Carolina, furiously hitting the recruiting trail throughout the month of January. Still, the former New England Patriots coach made it clear Florio and Pro Football Talk might not be the best “source” for accurate information about Belichick.

“We’re all set, full speed ahead. Pro Football Talk is not a good source for me,” Belichick said Wednesday on The Pat McAfee Show. “This is the last week I can be out on the road in January, and then we kind of go to a different model where the student-athletes come and visit us. But we don’t see them as much on the road. We have February to kind of work on our offseason program, then we start on Spring ball in March through mid-April. So, we’ll be on the field in a little over a month. That’ll be exciting and we’re already in the middle of our offseason program now. Guys are working hard and we’re still recruiting mostly ’26 players, but there’s still a few moving parts in the incoming class as well.”

Amid all the speculation, North Carolina finally released the fully-signed five-year coaching agreement with Belichick on Jan. 23, officially putting an end to the rumors.

Of course, Florio wasn’t the only NFL reporter to embrace the Belichick speculation.

NFL insider doubles down on Bill Belichick contract report

Through the first month of his time at North Carolina, there’s still a big question around Bill Belichick. There were six NFL head coach openings after the Dallas Cowboys moved on from Mike McCarthy, and multiple reports said teams called the legendary New England Patriots headman to gauge his interest despite just getting to Chapel Hill.

One report from CBS Sports said Belichick hadn’t signed his contract yet, leading to questions about whether his $10 million buyout would come into play. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero doubled down on that amid the rumors swirling around.

Pelissero noted UNC general manager Michael Lombardi’s public statements about Belichick’s future after signing a five-year contract – although the first three are guaranteed. However, he also pointed out Belichick hasn’t spoken about the noise to this point, which would go against one of his long-standing policies in New England.

“I am acutely aware of what Michael Lombardi continues to post one every social media operation, saying ‘The NFL is not an option. Bill doesn’t want to go to the NFL. We laugh about the NFL. It’s a joke to us. He only wants to be at the University of North Carolina,’” Pelissero said on The Rich Eisen Show. “I also know Bill Belichick, who for years, with players and coaches, kind of had a rule – you’re supposed to speak about yourself only. We’ve not heard directly from Bill Belichick on any of these things.

“The facts right now are, he’s gotten calls from teams, he did get a call from Tom Brady at one point. He has not signed a contract – I know that’s not unusual at North Carolina. But when I referenced a couple of weeks ago the questions about whether Bill Belichick or a new team would even have to pay that $10 million buyout, that’s what I was referring to, which was there’s not a memorandum of understanding or a contract that’s been signed by all parties here. So there’s a little bit of gray area in terms of how exactly that would apply.”

Nick Schultz contributed to this report.