Mike Lombardi resigns as UNC General Manager

[Brotherblues]

Word out of Chapel Hill is that Steve Belichick's health absence is related to substance abuse treatment. I hope he gets the care he needs to get back into coaching at some level. His name associated with players' use of drugs may be the end of his college coaching career. NC is not even a recreational marijuana state - hard core state legislature on that issue. It may be very benign but in a high profile job like that, getting high with the kids is not a good career choice. It was never a problem finding what you needed in Chapel Hill, by the way. While we're at it - Vote No on #8.

I'm thinking of Steve as more of an Adderall and cocaine guy.

 

[Huckleberry1]

BASED ON WHAT WE SAW HERE IN NEW ENGLAND:

This counts only as a mild surprise to me. The Belichick of 2000 was not the one who got fired in 2024. Some fans assume people don't change ever. But people do. Belichick of the early dynasty era had the humility and self-awareness to surround himself with players and coaches that presented a challenge. Maybe/likely because of his experience in Cleveland.

But overwhelming success started to erode those safeguards. He didn't need to rein himself in. And hey, it's not like his success was your standard 'great coach' success. Bill had done what no other coach in history had done.

LET ME REITERATE: I am in awe of what he accomplished. I would not trade his time here for anything. BUT I am aware of what became his flaws.

That historic success likely cemented in his mind that he didn't need to limit himself like he had in 2000. He didn't feel he needed to be challenged by players or coaches anymore. If they didn't fall in line after seeing those Lombardis... then how smart were they?

The most outward manifestation of this was the Matt Patricia as OC experiment. Even in the preseason, when games were at their most vanilla, it was clear MP was in over his head. Multiple analysts were in shock at just how bad his playcalling was. It broke Mac Jones. Maybe he didn't have that far to go to be broken, but the goal should have been building him up, not leaving him wondering what he was supposed to be doing.

WHAT UNC HAS SHOWN ME... he learned NOTHING from his dismissal in New England. If anything, he got worse. To me, it is fairly clear he views the college game with a certain degree of superiority. The crowd of yes-men has grown stronger. His obliviousness to their failings is apparent. His carelessness with the rules of the NCAA is flagrantly obvious.

All that's left of 2000's Belichick is that incredible football mind. And it's time for him to go.

If there is one quality Bill Belichick never had its humility.

 

[JoeSixPat]

I'm sad that Belichick has tarnished his legacy so much over the last half decade or so. I know Spygate and Deflategate (even though that was more of a Brady scandal than his) was always going to be part of his legacy, but I think they really didn't tarnish his legacy as much because people realize that they both had little to with the winning.

But you cannot get past some of the awful decisions he made in his final years with the Patriots or how he has allowed his girlfriend to be such a magnet for negative attention for him. This could be the topper of his legacy if the investigation all comes down on him.

I will always remember of as the GOAT and how much of a football genius he was especially in the early parts of the dynasty. He changed the game in many ways.

But last impressions are lasting and most of his last impressions are far from flattering.

Spot on.

We all know Spygate and Deflategate are BS so that was never going to tarnish his image with us. I think most other NFL fans understand those "scandals" were bogus too, with the exception of the die-hard Pats-haters. But we were scratching our heads on a number of his later moves (let's make our DC an OC and see how that goes!)

Even then, if he had rode off in the sunset of being an NFL talking head, sharing his immense knowledge of the game and it's history, I think he'd even have a chance of turning the haters around. Heck - if he were doing that none of us would have faulted him for finding himself a young girlfriend, even if she was proud of being a "gold-digger."

But he's just keeps breaking his own rules of "do your job" and "don't cause distractions" by melding his personal and public life as a head coach and hanging his legacy on guys like Lombardi and even his own son's track record.

All of this points to some very poor judgement on his part and today, Belichick is an example of what NOT to do when you retire from an historic NFL head coaching career.

 

[vicspats]

Who would have thought this guy could have turned out to be a junkie?

Kid has a nose built for a straw …

 

[Bill Lee]

Kid has a nose built for a straw …

Living a life in obscurity is underrated.

 

[upstater1]

Teams investigate themselves quite frequently. They do it before the NCAA gets involved. They know if they investigate and the dole out their own punishment, it may save them from getting an even worse punishment from the NCAA.

The Miami Hurricanes scandal started with an internal investigation by the school and blew up into a major scandal where the NCAA got involved because it seemed clear Miami was trying to cover up as much as they were trying to find out the facts.

OSU investigated Urban Meyer and punished him and his staff.

ASU investigated their recruiters to see if they violated COVID recruitment policies.

Michigan investigated AD Warde Manuel after he covered up things like sign stealing, Sherrone Moore having an inappropriate sexual relation with a staffer and then getting arrested for stalking her, etc. He was fired due to the investigation.

This is why I'm talking about UNC. They kept the scandal under wraps until the NCAA came calling.

There is absolutely nothing here for the NCAA to investigate. Any NIL impropriety is moot. The unit overseeing NIL has been defanged. Teams pay 4x as much over the NIL cap prescribed by the NCAA.