When Bill Belichick began addressing North Carolina fans at the Dean Smith Center, he was met with a bizarre chant in which he shouted out a rival NFL team from his professional coaching career, the Eagles.
To see as much as possible in Chapel Hill, or these days in Chapel Bill, Belichick spoke during halftime of the Tar Heel men’s basketball game against La Salle.
Moments after Belichick addressed the crowd, he was drowned out by a familiar chant for sports fans, but perhaps not for college basketball enthusiasts.
‘AREDELS! EAGLES!’, said fans from apparently La Salle, in Philadelphia.
Belichick has only been the head coach of two AFC teams that rarely played the Eagles, the exception being the 2018 Super Bowl where Philadelphia defeated New England.
Still, taking the opportunity to declare their favorite team for Belichick was an opportunity Explorers fans didn’t pass up.
Bill Belichick spoke to UNC fans at a men’s basketball game in Chapel Hill on Saturday
During the new head coach’s speech, fans can be heard shouting the Philadelphia Eagles
Belichick certainly heard the La Salle fans, but it didn’t deter him or change the tone of his comments, as if those opponents didn’t exist.
Belichick officially took over as UNC’s head football coach on Thursday in a shocking gridiron move.
The 72-year-old Belichick has never coached in college football before and his entire time away from playing on the sidelines has been in the NFL.
Now that he’s waited 11 months for another NFL opening, he’s turning down professional opportunities for the kind of control he craves at the college level.
Belichick will never compete against the Philadelphia Eagles again. The Boston College Eagles, who are in the same conference as the Tar Heels, will be a different story.