Bill Belichick’s Patriots ban, explained: Why UNC has Drake Maye social media restrictions, no scouts on campus, more

Daniel Mader

•
Bill Belichick’s Patriots ban, explained: Why UNC has Drake Maye social media restrictions, no scouts on campus, more image

Bill Belichick's move to UNC was supposed to be a new beginning for the 73-year-old. He was shockingly leaving the NFL behind, pursuing a role in college that involved tons of new aspects, from younger player development, to NIL and building a team.

However, Belichick has reportedly been drawing even more attention to his former employer, the New England Patriots, by virtually banning anything related to the franchise in the Tar Heels' program.

Reports early in the 2025 season indicated that Patriots scouts were not allowed at UNC facilities. But the latest reported twist takes the anti-Patriots agenda a step further for Belichick, with Tar Heels staffers allegedly not allowed to post anything related to the team on social media. 

📲 Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp

Here's what to know about Belichick's reported "Patriots ban" at UNC.

MORE: Everything to know about Bill Belichick-Robert Kraft feud, why coach left Patriots

Bill Belichick’s Patriots ban at UNC

There have been two areas where Belichick has reportedly implemented a "Patriots ban" at North Carolina: scouting and social media.

Scouts

Just as UNC was beginning its 2025 season, ESPN's Kalyn Kahler reported that Belichick had "banned the New England Patriots' staff from accessing the Tar Heels' program," with team general manager Michael Lombardi informing the Patriots they could not come to UNC one day before one of their scouts was scheduled to visit in August.

Per ESPN, Belichick offers "limited access to all NFL personnel" at UNC.

Soon after, Belichick confirmed that Patriots scouts were unwelcome on Tar Heels' grounds, saying "It's obvious I'm not welcome at their facility, so they're not welcome at ours." Belichick being banned from any Patriots grounds was not known, but the head coach sparked those rumors by responding to them himself.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel responded to the reports, opting to focus on his own team.

"That's an individual choice and we'll cross that bridge when we start looking at players," Vrabel said, per ESPN. "I'm going to focus on our football team. That's their prerogative to make the decisions that they feel like are the best for them. We'll have to find other ways to get the information for any players that we want to look at at North Carolina."

However, Vrabel also downplayed the fact that Belichick was banned from the Patriots in any fashion.

"Bill came back for, to the best of my knowledge, [to] Tom's ceremony," Vrabel said on sports radio WEEI, according to ESPN. "So I guess he's welcomed back based on the fact he was there. I'll just go by that -- since his departure as the head coach here, he's been back. I'll leave it at that."

Social media

In October 2025, 247Sports' Ross Martin reported that sources had told him there was a "directive from the staff (Bill Belichick" to not post or repost any Patriots-related content on UNC's social media accounts.

Prior to that report, UNC's accounts had not highlighted Patriots quarterback Drake Maye's standout performance on "Sunday Night Football" despite him being an alum of the program, as many collegiate teams' sports accounts do.

However, just under two hours after Martin shared that report on X, the official UNC football account posted a highlight of Maye facing the Buffalo Bills the night prior, with plenty of comments responding about Belichick's reported Patriots ban.

Belichick has not yet confirmed whether or not there were real orders to not post Patriots-related content on social media. However, with UNC's first Maye-related post coming hours after Martin's report, there is some fuel to suggest the Tar Heels' head coach extended his reported New England ban over to social media.

MORE: How Bill Belichick's UNC salary compares to NCAA's highest-paid coaches

Why is Bill Belichick banned from Patriots?

Belichick is not banned from the Patriots, at least to public knowledge, as head coach Mike Vrabel downplayed any Belichick bans in response to the back-and-forth between New England and UNC. 

"Bill came back for, to the best of my knowledge, [to] Tom's ceremony," Vrabel said on sports radio WEEI, according to ESPN. "So I guess he's welcomed back based on the fact he was there. I'll just go by that -- since his departure as the head coach here, he's been back. I'll leave it at that."

Still, there haven't been any flat-out confirmations from Robert Kraft or others to shut down a potential Belichick ban in New England. The head coach seems to have thought he is banned from the Patriots — when asked about his reported UNC scouts ban, Belichick said "It's obvious I'm not welcome at their facility."

MORE: How long will the Belichick experiment last at UNC?

Why did Bill Belichick leave the Patriots?

Belichick departed from the Patriots' organization in January 2024. Put simply, the team was not what it used to be — after decades of dynastic success, from six Super Bowl rings to 10-plus wins in every season from 2003-19, New England had gone just 4-13 in the 2023 season. It was the team's worst record since 1992.

Since Tom Brady had left the Patriots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, which was a cause of controversy within the organization in itself, the team wasn't quite the same. The Patriots stuck by Belichick even without Brady, but they weren't a great team anymore.

From 2020-23, the Patriots made the playoffs once (2021, with a Wild Card exit), primarily relying on Belichick's defensive philosophies to win games and hover above .500. Mac Jones took over for Cam Newton as quarterback in 2021, but he didn't prove to be a long-term answer.

After the rough 4-13 campaign in 2023, it was clear where things were headed. The Patriots announced in January 2024 that they had "mutually agreed" to part ways with Belichick.

"I will always be a Patriot," Belichick said at the time. "I look forward to coming back here. But at this time, we're going to move on. I look forward and I am excited for the future."

However, in the years since then, Belichick and owner Robert Kraft have had some fairly public criticisms of one another in an up-and-down relationship.

MORE: The worst losses of Bill Belichick's coaching career

Bill Belichick's girlfriend's involvement at UNC

Another lingering off-the-field storyline for Belichick at UNC has been his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. She has had varying levels of involvement with his program based on various reports, primarily within public relations, along with making appearances at Tar Heels games.

The Athletic reported in April 2025 that Belichick had asked a Tar Heels administrator to copy Hudson on certain emails, while Hudson "does not have a contract or other employment agreement with the university." Hudson has a background as a social media ambassador for the clothing company Rebel Athletic.

According to that story, Hudson wrote an email to the school's media team before Belichick's son, Steve, was announced as defensive coordinator, telling them to "raise awareness regarding a sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious, frequently occurring detail within media releases and social media posts.”

"Though Steve Belichick is in fact Bill’s son, he should be depicted and represented as his own established, credible entity as opposed to an extension of Bill,” Hudson wrote to the media team, per The Athletic. “It can be easily misinterpreted that Steve is simply benefiting from nepotism but that is not the case. Steve was fortunate to have learned defensive football strategy from the ‘greatest defensive mind’ of all time. He has earned his position due to his performance and output.”

However, Hudson's apparent role at UNC has been the cause of controversy in more recent months. Belichick told his team in May that Hudson is a "personal relationship" and "doesn't have anything to do with football," per ESPN, after a report from Pablo Torre suggested that Hudson had been banned from team facilities due to concern over her close relationship with the head coach.

Hudson called Torre's report "factually incorrect" and "slanderous" afterward, per TMZ. UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham also said there was never any push to keep Hudson away from the athletics department or facilities, per ESPN.

Since then, Hudson's potential role at UNC has been quieter, outside of her making appearances at Tar Heels games.

MORE: What to know about Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson's ages

Daniel Mader

Daniel Mader is a Content Producer for The Sporting News. He joined SN in 2024 as an editorial intern following graduation from Penn State University. He has previously written for Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports, the Centre Daily Times, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Daily Collegian and LancasterOnline. Daniel grew up in Lancaster, Penn., with a love for baseball that’ll never fade, but could also talk basketball or football for days.