As Bill Belichick began to address North Carolina fans at the Dean Smith Center, he was met with a strange chant, shouting out a rival NFL team from his professional coaching career, the Eagles.
To be seen as much as possible in Chapel Hill, or Chapel Bill these days, Belichick spoke at halftime of the Tar Heel men’s basketball game against La Salle.
Moments after Belichick addressed the crowd, he was drowned out by a chant familiar to sports fans, but perhaps not to college basketball fans.
EAGLES! EAGLES!’ said fans of apparently La Salle, who is in Philadelphia.
Belichick was only the head coach of two AFC teams that rarely played the Eagles, with the exception of the 2018 Super Bowl, where Philadelphia defeated New England.
However, taking the opportunity to shout out their favorite team in front of Belichick was an opportunity Explorers fans didn’t waste.
Bill Belichick spoke to UNC fans at a men’s basketball game Saturday in Chapel Hill.
During the new head coach’s speech, fans can be heard yelling at the Philadelphia Eagles.
Surely Belichick listened to the La Salle fans but that did not stop him or change the tone of his comments, as if the opposing fans did not exist.
Belichick officially took over as UNC head football coach on Thursday in a shocking move.
Belichick, 72, had never coached college football before, and his entire period away from playing on the sidelines occurred in the NFL.
Now, after 11 months waiting for another NFL opening, he is turning down professional opportunities for the kind of control he craves at the college level.
Belichick will never face the Philadelphia Eagles again. The Boston College Eagles, who are in the same conference as the Tar Heels, will be another story.