There will be no “Hard Knocks” documentary about Bill Belichick’s first season at North Carolina.
A spokesperson for NFL Media told CBS Sports that the group couldn’t come to an agreement with North Carolina and Belichick about the 2025 season. The longstanding documentary series had been in discussions with the school for a behind-the-scenes look at Belichick’s first season as a college football head coach.
Had the documentary gotten the necessary approvals, it would have been the first time “Hard Knocks” had featured a college football program. The series began with an annual focus on an NFL team’s training camp and has recently expanded to include in-season and off-season versions of the series. During the 2024 season, the series followed the AFC North.
A “Hard Knocks” following North Carolina around could have been the most fascinating version of the series in years. Belichick is charting an unprecedented path at North Carolina. Bill Walsh is the only other coach to win a Super Bowl before becoming a college football head coach and Walsh had previously been the head coach at Stanford before he joined the San Francisco 49ers. The North Carolina job is Belichick’s first college coaching job period.
Having “Hard Knocks” behind the scenes would also be a departure from the former New England Patriots coach’s typical style of secrecy even though the Patriots were the subject of an NFL Films documentary about the 2009 season.
But you can also understand why the idea would be intriguing. Recruiting is a non-stop endeavor and a docs-series could serve as another recruiting vehicle for high school players and college players looking to enter the transfer portal. When North Carolina general manager Michael Lombardi " target="_blank" class="link"> discussed the idea of the show on a "Pat McAfee Show" appearance last week, he referred to the concept of North Carolina being the NFL's "33rd team."
North Carolina opens the 2025 season against TCU on Labor Day and officially begins Belichick's first spring practices on Tuesday.
