All of college football is coming for Bill Belichick


Of all the people thrilled that Bill Belichick and UNC flamed out so spectacularly Monday night — other ACC programs, Jets fans, Robert Kraft (probably) — no crew went harder at Belichick’s neck than TCU’s social media. Deploying an array of memes, quote-tweets and one-shot jabs, TCU’s social media crew carved up Belichick, Carolina and anyone who dared to shower love on the Tar Heels:

All the pregame hype — the Duke-basketball’s-coming levels of enthusiasm, the return of notable alumni and celebrity hangers-on, the “Chapel Bill” iconography everywhere — all dissipated in a fine baby-blue mist once TCU got to work on the Heels.

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And just like that, Belichick’s well-honed and familiar crabby routines — no names on the depth chart, a perma-scowl on the sidelines, grumpiness at the postgame podium — seem more than a little cringeworthy in the world of college football. What worked so well in the NFL comes off now as out-of-place and dated, like your dad trying to do karaoke of a song from the 21st century.

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You can pick through the wreckage of Monday night and try to find positives, or building blocks, for the Tar Heels somewhere in there. Maybe. Whatever. That’s not really the point here. This is a cultural story, not an Xs-and-Os one.

Belichick once thrived in a world where everyone — players, coaches, ownership, media — understood that there is a clear chain of command, with him at the very top of the pinnacle. He ruled with fear, intimidation, disgust and condescension. He kept every player on his roster, right up to the Greatest of All Time, in constant, stomach-churning fear that their next mistake would be their last.

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And it worked! The man amassed six Super Bowl rings, and along the way he broke the spirit of half a dozen franchises.

But what wins in the NFL doesn’t play so well in college football. This is a sport where loyalty to your university — whether or not you actually attended it — wraps itself around your DNA. It’s a sport of live mascots and dead trees, a sport where coaches spout Bible verses even as their players are using the Ten Commandments as a to-do list. It’s a sport whose supreme weirdness is a load-bearing beam, not a side-effect. Come on, you think the NFL could ever in a thousand years ?

Thing is, that strangeness is slipping away with every Home Depot-sponsored panel breaking down every Dr. Pepper game break and every Cheez-It time out. Rivalries, conference alignments, decades-long traditions don’t stand a chance against network priorities. And TV themes that use a marching band rather than the apocalyptic symphonies of the NFL can’t disguise the fact that college is becoming more like the pros every single day.

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In other words, the pushback against Belichick is, consciously or unconsciously, a pushback against the creeping professionalization of college football. Sorry, Bill. Dating a 24-year-old is just table stakes in this world.

The Belichick-inspired hype — from ESPN, from certain segments of the media, from Belichick’s own camp — was understandable, but it still rubs college football lifers the wrong way. And that means they’ll gleefully rub Belichick’s nose in his failures for as long as they can.

“I think we all felt a little disrespected, maybe, coming in,” TCU’s Sonny Dykes (days coaching in the NFL: 0) said after Monday’s game. “There was a lot of conversation and none of it was about us. I think we all were highly motivated. Our players were certainly excited to play.”

An unnamed ACC coordinator made the point even more directly to The Athletic’s David Ubben. While noting that the arrival of Belichick is “great for college football,” the coordinator added, “It’s really, really important for all of us who have come up in college football to kick his ass this year.” In other words: Glad you’re here. Now here’s how we do business.

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Bill Belichick rolled into Chapel Hill looking to impose some NFL-level discipline on college football. On Monday night, though, college football reminded Belichick and anyone else who would professionalize this game: You can’t control a sport built on chaos. You either ride the whirlwind or you get blown away.



#college #football #coming #Bill #Belichick

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