Bill Belichick stuck to form Saturday, giving ESPN sideline reporter Stormy Buonantony a short, clipped interview during North Carolina’s road game against Clemson that quickly became the talk of the broadcast.
With the Tar Heels leading 14-3 at the start of the second quarter, Buonantony asked Belichick about his team’s cleaner play compared to earlier in the season. “We talked a lot yesterday about how much cleaner this version of your team has played than others. What have you seen so far with the penalties?” she asked.
“Too many, yeah. Too many,” Belichick replied.
She pressed further, asking what else the team needed to clean up. Belichick initially asked her to repeat the question, then gave little away. “No, we’ve just got to keep executing better and … too many penalties,” he said.
Play-by-play announcer Bob Wischusen welcomed her to a long tradition of reporters who’ve faced the same treatment. “Well, Stormy Buonantony — welcome to the club,” he said. “You are now a member. There’s hundreds of media members that have sat in that Patriots room over the years that probably right now are printing up Stormy’s jacket.”
Analyst Louis Riddick, who played for Belichick in Cleveland, said the coach appeared “locked in” and likely wasn’t fully satisfied with his team’s first-quarter performance.
“I’m fine, I made it out alive, guys,” Buonantony said afterward. “But I did just want to say, a very different feel on the sideline than we had yesterday at our meetings, right? The way he was talking, it was storytime.”
The broadcast crew noted that Belichick tends to be more forthcoming in off-the-record conversations, especially about football history.
North Carolina, off to a 2-0 start, led Clemson 17-6 at halftime and held the Tigers’ offense largely in check.
Program turmoil off the field
The interview came during a turbulent stretch for the program. The university, amid an internal probe into the team, announced that Belichick’s son, defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, will resign when his medical leave ends on Oct. 27.
That news follows the earlier departure of general manager Michael Lombardi, who stepped down before the investigation concluded that “certain actions demonstrated a disregard for Carolina’s values and standards of conduct.”
