Tom Brady still needs a minute to digest Bill Belichick’s shocking move last week to join the college ranks as head coach of North Carolina’s football team.
When calling Sunday’s Pennsylvania clash between the Eagles and the Steelers, Brady — who won six Super Bowls alongside Belichick across 20 seasons in New England — said the 72-year-old coach’s decision to lead the Tar Heels after a near five-decade coaching career in the NFL caught him by surprise.
“It kind of blew me away when I heard the news,” Brady, 46, told his Fox play-by-play partner, Kevin Burkhardt.
“I didn’t think that was an opportunity he was looking at, but they’re getting, obviously, a tremendous coach, and being in that locker room with him for as many years … those guys are going to play very hard, he’s going to coach them well, it’s a great benefit for all those players who are going to that program cause they’re getting the best coach that the NFL has ever seen, and now he’s at a college level.”
The past week has been a whirlwind for Belichick, who stunned the sports community Wednesday when UNC announced him as their new head coach.
The eight-time Super Bowl winner was formally introduced Thursday in Chapel Hill and maintained in his opening press conference that he is here to stay.
“I didn’t come here to leave,” Belichick said.
The legendary coach has longtime ties to the Tar Heels as his father, Steve, served as an assistant from 1953-55.
“I’ve always wanted to coach in college football. It just never really worked out. Had some good years in the NFL, so that was OK, but this was really a dream come true. I grew up in college football with my dad, who was in it for 50 years. All I knew was college football. It’s great to be back in Carolina, an environment I grew up in,” Belichick said Thursday.
A source confirmed to The Post’s Brian Costello that Belichick had inquired about the Jets’ head coaching vacancy following Robert Saleh’s firing in October.
Belichick famously resigned as head coach of the Jets in 2000 and tormented the championship-starved franchise for decades with Brady under center.
The future Hall of Fame quarterback, who himself is in the midst of a professional shakeup as a rookie NFL analyst, then joked about the recruiting process.
“He’s not the warmest and fuzziest of all time,” Brady said Sunday.
Brady left Belichick and the Patriots after the 2019 season and joined the Buccaneers, winning his seventh and final Super Bowl with Tampa Bay in February 2021.
He retired in 2023 after 23 prolific seasons.