Michael Lombardi: North Carolina training players as ‘33rd team’ in NFL
![Bill Belichick](https://on3static.com/cdn-cgi/image/height=417,width=795,quality=90,fit=cover,gravity=0.5x0.5/uploads/dev/assets/cms/2025/01/13205410/peyton-eli-manning-hilariously-pay-tribute-to-bill-belichick-in-final-manningcast-appearance.jpg)
During Bill Belichick‘s two dozen years in New England, a sign reading “practice execution becomes game reality” hung inside the Patriots facility.
It is one of Belichick’s favorite mottos and informed all who walked those hallowed halls exactly what was expected from them.
And now it’s what the 72-year-old first-year North Carolina head coach expects from everyone inside the Tar Heels football facility as Belichick moves to transform UNC into what new general manager Michael Lombardi describes as the NFL’s “33rd team.”
“Everything we do here is predicated on building a pro team,” Lombardi said during a press conference Tuesday. “We consider ourselves the (NFL’s) 33rd team because everybody that’s involved in our program has had some form or aspect in pro football.”
As North Carolina kicks off its offseason workoout program ahead of Spring practice, Lombardi explained how that mission begins behind the scenes with the team’s new strength and conditioning coach, Moses Cabrera, who spent 14 years with the New England Patriots, the last eight as the head strength coach.
“And Moses (Cabrera), our strength coach, spent a lot of time, 14 years in New England. Training is different for football than it is for other sports, you need lower body strength, you need lower body power, you need to be able to handle the physical grind of the season,” Lombardi said. “So, our training is conducive to what happens on the field. You have to be able to play with power in your lower body, so you have to train your lower body.
“And you’ve got to be able to have the right balance of rest, hydration and nutrition, which we’ve been very fortunate to come in here and our nutritionist, Amber (Rinestine-Ressa), she’s been outstanding. She was here before we got here. She’s been outstanding in terms of helping the players understand what’s ahead of them.”
While there are still plenty of holes left to fill, Belichick has made a concerted effort to infuse an NFL mentality into Chapel Hill, including hiring a coaching staff with decades of combined NFL experience. His first official hire was retaining offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Freddie Kitchens, himself a former Cleveland Browns head coach with 16 years experience in the NFL.
“One thing that’s always been important to Coach Belichick is what happens on the field has to happen on the practice field,” Lombardi concluded. “‘Practice execution becomes game reality’ — that’s a sign that used to hang in the Patriots facility. And that’s the same thing in the strength room. We’re going to do things that are going to translate to the field.”
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Michael Lombardi assesses difference between NFL, college football
The biggest coaching hire following the 2024 college football season was, undoubtedly, Bill Belichick taking the job at North Carolina. He immediately began assembling a staff laced with former NFL personnel, including Michael Lombardi as the team’s general manager.
There has been a lot of debate about the difference between college and professional football. However, from Lombardi’s perspective, running an NFL franchise and a college program are relatively similar.
“Well, I had an academic meeting today,” Michael Lombardi smiled. “So, I wouldn’t have had that in the NFL, but I would have had a different meeting. I probably would have had a security meeting. So, I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference in it, in the sense that there’s a lot of moving parts.”
Michael Lombardi has worked with Bill Belichick when they were with the Cleveland Browns. Then, he would become an assistant to the coaching staff with the New England Patriots. On top of that, Lombardi also made stops as an NFL GM and personnel executive with the Browns and Raiders.
Talent acquisition is inherently different in college and the NFL. College programs need to recruit players from high school as well as deal with the Transfer Portal where the NFL has a draft for first-year players to go along with multi-year contracts and free agency. That amounts to more work as you prepare for multiple seasons in college.
“There’s way more names that I’m dealing with. When you work as the general manager in the NFL, you’re dealing with one draft class, you’re dealing with one free agent class, and you can prepare for that. Now you’re dealing with the 2026 class, the 2027 class, the 2028 class. So, there’s a lot more names to deal with. So, there’s more volume than it would be in pro football, but the job is very similar. You have to accurately predict the future of players, talent, and their character, and then you’ve got to assign a dollar sign to it,” Lombardi said. “And you’ve got to be able to have in concert, the ability to develop the talent from within.”
On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this report.