As Bill Belichick began to address North Carolina fans at the Dean Smith Center, he was met with a bizarre chant, shouting out a rival NFL team from his professional coaching career, the Eagles.
To be seen as much as possible in Chapel Hill, or Chapel Bill these days, Belichick spoke at halftime of the Tar Heel’s men’s basketball game against La Salle.
Moments into Belichick addressing the crowd, he was drowned out by a familiar chant to sports fans, but maybe not to college basketball aficionados.
‘E-A-G-L-E-S! EAGLES!,’ fans from seemingly La Salle, which is in Philadelphia, said.
Belichick was only the head coach of two AFC teams who rarely played the Eagles, with an exception being the 2018 Super Bowl, where Philadelphia defeated New England.
Yet, taking the chance to shout out their favorite team in front of Belichick was an opportunity Explorers’ fans did not waste.
Bill Belichick spoke to UNC fans at a men’s basketball game on Saturday in Chapel Hill
During the new head coach’s speech, fans can be heard shouting out the Philadelphia Eagles
Belichick surely heard the La Salle fans but it did not stop him or change any tone from his remarks, as if those opposing fans did not exist.
Belichick officially took the UNC head football coaching job on Thursday in a shock gridiron move.
The 72-year-old Belichick has never coached in college football before, with his entire non-playing tenure on the sidelines happening in the NFL.
Now after 11 months waiting for another NFL vacancy to come his way, he spurns professional opportunities for the kind of control he craves at the college level.
Belichick will never square off with the Philadelphia Eagles again. The Boston College Eagles, who are in the same conference as the Tar Heels, will be another story.
