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Bill Belichick may be the University of North Carolina head football coach, but there was almost a plan to get him back in the NFL thanks to a fellow head coach he has great ties with.
Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton and Bill Belichick go back years. Both served on Bill Parcells’ staff, albeit at different times, before crossing paths as NFL head coaches.
In a detailed story about Payton and the Broncos’ playoff appearances last season, which ended with an AFC Championship Game loss to Belichick’s old New England Patriots, ESPN reported that Payton had the idea of going to Broncos owner Greg Penner with a plan to hire Belichick as the team’s temporary head coach until he reached 15 wins.
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North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick on the sidelines in the first quarter at Kenan Stadium on Sept. 1, 2025. (Bob Donnan/Imagn Images)
That exact win total would’ve had Belichick pass the great Don Shula for the all-time coaching wins record.
The report indicated that Payton would’ve still been on the staff as the assistant head coach, and once Belichick reached the win total, Payton would take back over as head coach.
Ultimately, Payton didn’t officially make the offer to Penner, deciding it would’ve been too complicated and Belichick would’ve also had to agree on his end.
There hasn’t been anything like it in football, but it brings about the question again regarding Belichick’s history in the league, which has been a hot topic since he and the Patriots parted ways.
Belichick’s impact on football is second to none, though it became clouded during the most recent Pro Football Hall of Fame voting as he found himself at the center of controversy.
Head coach Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos reacts during the first half against the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium on September 24, 2023 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
Belichick wasn’t a first-ballot Hall of Famer, with the likes of Tom Brady and others dumbfounded by the fact the coach with the second-most wins in history wasn’t getting his bust already made for the halls in Canton, Ohio. But some voters considered the controversy that swirled around Belichick during his time in Foxborough, which included Spygate, and believed he wasn’t worthy of the honor yet.
Since he left the NFL, many have wondered whether Belichick would ever pass Shula’s win total. That question remained even after he took North Carolina’s vacant job, his first as a college head coach.
And it still hovers over Belichick’s legacy, especially after his firm stance that he will be seeing his role with the Tar Heels into his second season despite murmurs that he would entertain NFL head coaching vacancies following the 2025 season.
North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick greets a recruit on the sidelines before an NCAA college football game against Stanford, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
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As of now, Belichick is content leading the way in Chapel Hill, while Payton aims to get back the Broncos back to the Super Bowl in 2026.
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