Tom Brady: Bill Belichick going to UNC ‘kind of blew me away’

While he was on the call for Sunday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles, Tom Brady took some talk about what was arguably the biggest football story of the week — Bill Belichick taking the head coaching job at the University of North Carolina.

Brady, who played under Belichick with the New England Patriots from 2000-2019, forming the most successful head coach/quarterback pairing in NFL history, was not expecting to see Belichick end up in college.

“Kind of blew me away when I heard the news,” Brady said. “I didn’t think that was an opportunity he was looking at.”

That said, while Brady wasn’t expecting to see Belichick go to college football, he was bullish about what his former coach would bring to UNC.

“But they’re getting, obviously a tremendous coach,” Brady added. “Those guys are gonna play very hard. He’s gonna coach ’em well. It’s a great benefit for all those players who are going to that program. ‘Cause they’re getting the best coach that this pro — NFL — has ever seen. Now he’s at a college level.”

Of course, a significant part of college football is recruiting. Belichick has long had a reputation for being stern and cold — something his former quarterback confirmed.

“He’s not the warmest and fuzziest of all time,” Brady said.

Backing up that story, Brady shared details of a conversation he and Belichick had shortly after the Patriots won their first championship with a 20-17 upset of the high-powered then-St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.

“He was out on Bourbon Street after we beat the Rams in 2001,” Brady remembered. “We got in the limo after the game the next morning to go to a press conference. And he goes, ‘You know what, Tom? You had a pretty good season.'”

That drew laughter from Brady’s broadcast partner, Kevin Burkhardt. Brady added that the coach didn’t soften over the years.

“That was about as warm and fuzzy as it got with coach Belichick.”