Bill Belichick put an end to speculation about a possible NFL return, issuing a statement Friday night declaring he will not pursue any professional openings. He also reaffirmed his commitment to North Carolina.<\/p>\n
Belichick, 73, is in his first season with the Tar Heels and has endured a rocky debut, starting 2-5 before delivering consecutive wins over Syracuse and Stanford to push UNC back toward bowl eligibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As NFL rumors swirled linking him to the New York Giants after the firing of Brian Daboll, the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach made clear he intends to stay in Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have great respect and genuinely care for the New York Giants organization and both the Mara and Tisch families,\u201d Belichick wrote in a statement posted to Instagram and shared by ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe New York Giants played an important role in my life and in my coaching journey\u2026 However, despite circulating rumors, I have not and will not pursue any NFL head coaching vacancies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Belichick won two Super Bowls as the Giants\u2019 defensive coordinator under Bill Parcells before capturing six more titles in New England. His deep ties to New York fueled speculation, but he said his focus remains solely on the Tar Heels.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince arriving in Chapel Hill, my commitment to the UNC football program has not wavered,\u201d he wrote. \u201cMy focus remains on improving this team and building a program that makes Tar Heel fans proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
He ended his message with a familiar tone. \u201cWe\u2019re on to Wake Forest.\u201d<\/p>\n
More college football news:\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bill Belichick put an end to speculation about a possible NFL return, issuing a statement Friday night declaring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-284462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}