A deal to make Bill Belichick's North Carolina football program the centerpiece of this year's offseason Hard Knocks was on, until it wasn’t. But it's apparently not dead.
Both Jonathan Jones of CBSSports.com and Ryan Glasspiegel of FrontOfficeSports.com have mentioned the possibility of a UNC infomercial masquerading as a documentary being produced by some group other than NFL Films, and broadcast on a platform other than HBO.
Jones reports that, in recent weeks, NFL Films employees had been spotted in the facility. Hell, it's possible that filming had even begun.
The precise reason(s) for the collapse of the UNC/NFL Films agreement still aren't known. Possible theories include a disagreement over ownership of the footage. As one source explained it to PFT on Tuesday, someone close to Belichick was becoming a little too involved in the project, in the opinion of one or more employees of NFL Films.
Then there's the realities that multiple owners weren’t happy about the use of the NFL Films platform for a coach who has burned a bridge or two in the NFL — and whose consigliere, Michael Lombardi, has said "how messed up" the NFL is and how glad he and Belichick are to be out of the league.
They definitely are. Now, in more ways than one.
