As Bill Belichick tells it, Hard Knocks was never a consideration for UNC

Bill Belichick’s recent attempt to take the P.R. bull by the horns included a seemingly gratuitous claim that many will regard as something that fell from the non-business end of the bull.

During his one-on-one interview with Ryan Clark in the opening minutes of The Pivot Podcast, Belichick made a sudden pivot to the largely-forgotten Hard Knocks false start while attempting to push the claim that his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, has nothing to do with North Carolina football.

“And the Hard Knocks thing, you know, like, just for the record, Hard Knocks is training camp,” Belichick said. “And we’re not training camp. We’re just not. That’s not what we — that’s not what we are. You know, the drama of training camp, the who’s gonna cut and all that. Like, we’re a season, and they don’t want that. There’s film issues, too, but forget about the film issues. Like, just say you could straighten all those out. The Hard Knocks just didn’t fit for us. That’s the bottom line.”

It would have seemed like a strange left turn to anyone who hasn’t been following the tick-tock of the Tar Heels program. Belichick’s sensitivity to the Hard Knocks issue comes directly from the widespread reporting that the deal went from being essentially done on a Friday to DOA by Monday, with TheAthletic.com specifically explaining that Hudson “played an instrumental role in stopping the production, related to her request to be heavily involved in the project.”

If Belichick is telling the truth, the conversations with NFL Films never should have made it out of the starting blocks. By all indications and appearances, the negotiation fell apart at the finish line.

Belichick’s version makes little sense, because his position would have killed the project from the moment it was first suggested.

“Hard Knocks?” he would have said. “Hard Knocks is training camp, And we’re not training camp. We’re just not. That’s not what we — that’s not what we are. You know, the drama of training camp, the who’s gonna cut and all that. Like, we’re a season, and you don’t want that. Hard Knocks just doesn’t fit for us.”

The deal, based on multiple reports, got far too close to being finalized for “this isn’t a good fit” to be the real reason why it didn’t happen. Especially since it was never about a training-camp version of Hard Knocks.

North Carolina wasn’t going to be the Hard Knocks training camp team. Instead, UNC would have filled the offseason void created by the fact that, in the aftermath of the Giants’ self-inflicted Hard Knocks TKO in 2024, no NFL team wanted to touch the assignment with a 24-foot pole.

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