North Carolina coach Bill Belichick was grilled Monday ahead of this week's game against East Tennessee State concerning alleged off-the-field turmoil surrounding his program, including the recent resignation of his general manager and the indefinite leave of his son, defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, for medical reasons. Michael Lombardi, Belichick's first hire at UNC, resigned last week during the university's active investigation into a human resources complaint filed by a former front office employee. He was placed on administrative leave on July 27.
WRAL reported the university's ongoing internal investigation into the football program includes Lombardi and Steve Belichick, who allegedly has been questioned by lawyers for drug-related issues and involvement with players. Bill Belichick's first nine questions during Monday's press conference were related to the university's investigation, his son or the allegations leading to Lombardi's departure. He has spoken with Lombardi since his resignation but has chosen to keep those conversations private.
"My focus is on getting the team ready to play ETSU," Belichick said. "I'm not involved in any other part of the process. My job is to get the team ready to play this weekend and that's what we're going to do." Belichick said Steve Belichick is still on medical leave and did not comment further.
When asked whether the Tar Heels maintained an atmosphere of compliance within their football program, Belichick said, "Yeah, totally." UNC is coming off a season-opening win in Ireland over TCU and went through its bye week dealing with these distractions. For the most part, Belichick declined to offer his thoughts on the ongoing investigation and directed most of those questions to participating parties. "In the end, we want to run the program in the very best way, and if there's things we need to do to correct it, we'll obviously do them," Belichick said.
As it relates to the independent active investigation, Belichick said that he understands "the importance of the work that's being done by the investigative team and, obviously, our high standard here of our code of conduct and doing things the right way and making sure that our student-athletes are given the utmost, the best treatment, the very best care, and the very best coaching that we can possibly give them. So that's critically important to us." Belichick's in the second season of a five-year, $50 million contract with the Tar Heels. Belichick's contract mandates the veteran coach "promote an atmosphere of compliance" and maintain institutional control of the program, which means following rules and compliance set by the university, NCAA and the ACC.
Belichick was also asked about his team's culture on Monday and said he feels he has a good relationship with his players.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
