It’s an early Thursday morning and Michael Lombardi is focused on breaking down tight end tape.
He knows what his boss, Bill Belichick, wants at the position but it is still an arduous challenge. The former NFL general manager has been breaking down tape for more than 40 years but there are considerably more prospects to evaluate at the high school level than what NFL personnel folks like Lombardi dealt with for NFL Draft preparation. That’s a blessing and a curse.
Later that day, he’ll appear on the popular Pat McAfee Show on ESPN. Lombardi is billed as a “Progrum Paisan” on McAfee’s eponymous show and it’s been a successful partnership for both sides. Lombardi has used McAfee’s large pulpit to dispute false reports about Belichick, talk about their efforts to build UNC football and tap into his NFL expertise to discuss hot button league-wide topics.
Publicly, Lombardi has long been Belichick’s biggest defender, using his experience working with the eight-time Super Bowl winner at multiple spots to give a peek behind the scenes on the success and motivations behind the NFL’s greatest coach. After last working in the NFL with Belichick and the New England Patriots in 2016, Lombardi leaned into building a media career, writing books, working with VSiN and The Ringer and frequently appearing on Ringer founder Bill Simmons’ podcast.
Lombardi hadn’t worked in college football in 40 years when Belichick made him his first hire in December after shocking the football world and becoming the University of North Carolina head football coach. His official title is general manager, a fitting one given his NFL experience, but he wears a number of hats as a Belichick-run UNC program gets up and running in the face of industry skepticism that it will succeed.
“I have such great respect for the way he works and his vision, and I’m aligned with it so it’s easy to work within the framework,” Lombardi told CBS Sports. “I’ve said this many times…I’m not a good personnel guy for a coach I don’t believe in philosophically. But when I do with Coach Belichick, I feel like I can be a good productive personnel guy.”
“The secret to any successful organization is the ability to anticipate problems, not react” — Al Davis
In college football’s most interesting story in 2025, Lombardi is the consigliere to its most interesting coach. The New Jersey native is known for quoting “The Sopranos”, and since you’re surely wondering, he’s partial to Silvio Dante over “The Godfather’s” Tom Hagen for the kind of adviser he tries to be to the hoodie Don.
“I think Sil was right — he wanted to stay in the spotlight, I think he enjoyed it,” Lombardi explained. “I think he was willing to tell Tony what he needed to hear. Could be demanding if he had to be, but still was a pragmatist. You have to look at this situation, figure out a solution. I think that’s what Sil did.”
And that’s who Lombardi is in many ways, according to friend and former boss Brian Musburger, who called him the “ultimate football consigliere.”
“I do think he’s a war-time consigliere and someone you’d love to have with you in a foxhole,” Musburger said. “Under pressure, he’s measured and capable of assessing the big picture in a decision.”
The Sopranos, though, is just the tip of the iceberg of his cultural and literary references he relates back to football. Almost every situation or question reminds him of a famous quote or a motto he’s used to guide his approach. In one conversation with a reporter, he pinballs from quoting Cuban poet Jose Marti to former Raiders owner Al Davis to legendary songwriter Neil Simon. He’s as equipped to discuss the brilliance of Belichick’s roster construction as he is Billy Bob Thornton’s acting on “Landman.”
Musburger, the co-founder and current president of VSiN, remembers eating pizza with Lombardi one night at Pizzeria Bianco, a Phoenix-based restaurant picked by Eater and USA Today as the best pizza in America and featured on Netflix’s “Chef’s Table.” Lombardi was fascinated with how a pizzeria in Arizona could possibly have the best pizza and had to experience it and break it down like only he can. As part of a discussion around food, Lombardi started extolling the values of an EVO hibachi grill he had at his house.
“We spent the whole time talking grilling techniques,” the VSiN co-founder said. “He inspired me to redesign my backyard and install it.”
It’s experiences like that that connect Lombardi with a legendary basketball coach in Musburger’s mind. Before VSiN, Musburger and his father, Todd, long represented Phil Jackson, the architect of two of the NBA’s greatest modern dynasties. Having spent considerable time around both, in professional and personal settings, Brian sees real similarities between the two.
“In the world of sports a lot of these guys can be one-dimensional and only capable of talking about X’s and O’s of their respective sports but Phil and Michael are not,” Musburger said. “They’re renaissance men, they have an intellectual curiosity that makes them great leaders and great strategists and thinkers.”
“Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; . . . a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.” – Samuel Ullman
Hall of Fame NFL coach Bill Parcells gave Lombardi that poem from the Birmingham, Alabama native who worked as a pharmacist. The poem “Youth,” a favorite of former American general Douglas MacArthur, is how the 65-year-old Lombardi tries to live his life.
It’s a helpful mantra knowing what he just signed up for. As prominent college football and college basketball coaches like Nick Saban, Jay Wright and Tony Bennett head for the exits, Belichick and Lombardi have done the opposite. With little college experience for either — Lombardi last worked in college at UNLV in 1984; Belichick never has though his father, Steve, was a college football lifer — they saw the game evolve enough to believe their skill sets were well suited on a university campus. As college coaches frequently bemoan what the game has become, from the impact of Name, Image and Likeness to the transfer portal creating free agency, the North Carolina brain trust saw opportunity.
“We’ve lived this life,” Lombardi said. “In fairness for those other coaches, they never really have. We’ve lived this life where the locker room is a business office, not a locker room. Not to say it gives us an advantage but it gives us a knowledge of what’s the terrain.
“We used to say this at the Raiders all the time, ‘The jungle is never dangerous if you know the trails.’ We know these trails.”
Rick Venturi was with Lombardi and Belichick when they really learned those trails. The year was 1994 and Belichick was in his first stint as an NFL head coach, with the Cleveland Browns. He had missed the NFL playoffs his first three years, setting up a critical fourth year to break through and make the playoffs. Belichick assembled a coaching staff that included future college head coaches Nick Saban, Kirk Ferentz and Pat Hill. Lombardi had moved into a prominent director of player personnel role, working his way up the organization after starting as a scout in 1987.
Venturi, the Browns’ defensive backs coach that year, saw the bond grow between Belichick and Lombardi. There wasn’t a single a-ha moment in a season that resulted in Belichick’s first playoff appearance as a head coach, but over time Venturi noticed how much the relentless head coach believed in Lombardi’s abilities. For the notoriously curmudgeonly Belichick, that belief is earned, not given.
“I think there is a genuine respect and that’s not easy with Bill,” Venturi said. “You have to be pretty special for him to give you that kind of trust and respect that he has for Mike.”
Venturi says that respect comes from Belichick believing Lombardi knows what he’s talking about. While the average fan might best know Lombardi for dropping a good, hard take on VSiN or McAfee shows, Venturi is still blown away by the UNC general manager’s football knowledge. Lombardi will always be most associated with Belichick but he worked for six different NFL franchises, including starting his career as a scout for the San Francisco 49ers under legendary coach Bill Walsh. His longest stint anywhere was actually working for Al Davis in Oakland as a senior personnel executive from 1998-2006, helping lead the Raiders to the Super Bowl in 2003.
Venturi spent a lifetime in football, working as a defensive coordinator with the Browns, Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints, among other stops, and can tell when a guy is for real or not. Same with Belichick.
And Lombardi, he says, is very much for real.
“I always say there’s snorkelers and deep sea divers and a lot of guys in that GM position can talk a little bit of football but it’s really a surface knowledge, it’s a snorkel knowledge,” he said. “Mike is an in-depth football guy so there doesn’t have to be any translation. He knows exactly what Bill needs, he knows exactly what Bill wants in players. He knows what it takes, both athletically and mentally, to play in a Belichick system.”
Says Lombardi of why he and Belichick work so well together, “Both our personalities are similar in that we believe that there’s no shortcut. Both want to win and don’t care who gets the credit.”
“To improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often” – Winston Churchill
The NFL can be a brutal business. In just this year alone, two NFL head coaches were fired after only a single year including Jerod Mayo, Belichick’s replacement guiding the New England Patriots. Getting fired is largely a matter of when, not if, even for future Hall of Fame coaches like Belichick and Pete Carroll.
Lombardi has lived it. He got his big shot to be an NFL general manager in 2013 with the Cleveland Browns in a structure that included Joe Banner in a CEO role. But Browns owner Jimmy Haslam dumped Lombardi and Banner after only 13 months of them working together. Lombardi resurfaced the next year working with Belichick as a special assistant to the head coach for two seasons and that was it.
He had to figure out what the next stage of his life would look like. After a lifetime of football, he felt he had something important enough to say to write a book. The result was “Gridiron Genius: A Masterclass in Building Teams and Winning at the Highest Level,” detailing Lombardi’s experience with mentors Belichick and Bill Walsh and his football philosophies. It detailed guys that forced him to change his mind about them (Malcolm Butler, Doug Pederson), offered takeaways that seem likely to be applied at UNC (“System over stars” and “You’re never done getting better”) and worked in references to movies like “The Usual Suspects” to explain Belichick’s 3-4 Cover 2 defense.
Seven years after its publication, you can still hear the pride in Lombardi’s voice talking about the book, in many ways the crown jewel of his football accomplishments that include three Super Bowl rings.
“I think when you’ve been in the NFL as long as I have, and you’ve had your ups and downs, you end up becoming somewhat of a bitter person, or, jaded, if you will,” Lombardi said. “Writing ‘Gridiron Genius’ allowed me, to quote the great Don Henley, ‘to allow the forgiveness of myself, to explore into another world.’ I think that removed any of the doubt that I had. From a life standpoint, one of the most rewarding times of my life. It was kind of like going to therapy without going to therapy.”
“Get your information from looking, not talking” – Red Auerbach
When UNC hired Belichick on Dec. 11, the early signing period and winter transfer portal window were already in swing. As Belichick worked to build out his coaching staff and Lombardi the personnel staff, they raced against the clock to add players to the 2025 roster.
There were some early challenges, namely how much preexisting relationships they didn’t have mattered in portal recruiting. They pulled out some big relationships occasionally, such as having former Patriots Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski reach out to portal quarterback target John Mateer, but they largely opted to build out a roster in the “Patriot Mantra.”
In the transfer portal, North Carolina focused on players they knew (four players from Washington where defensive coordinator Steve Belichick spent last season) and low-rated smaller school players from places like Prairie View A&M and Holy Cross. There wasn’t a big splashy portal addition but with limited staff and no time to wait, the Tar Heels still signed 247Sports’ No. 14 ranked transfer portal class, led by Washington cornerback Thaddeus Dixon, UConn defensive lineman Pryce Yates and Troy offensive tackle Daniel King.
“We didn’t have a build up period to kind of study and prepare for the test,” Lombardi said. “We’re taking the test here right in the middle of it.”
Bill Belichick gives North Carolina old college try: Inside Super Bowl-winning coach’s shocking career change
Jonathan Jones
In high school recruiting, they flipped recruits from East Carolina, Navy and Temple down the stretch. They sold their NFL experience — one recruit told 247Sports the staff had swayed him on UNC being like the 33rd NFL team — and ability to develop players for the next level. They relied on their decades of scouting experience and knowledge of what’s worked in the past with what they want to accomplish.
“Mike knows that if he likes a player that they want to recruit and the kid may have a deficiency in one area or another, he knows Bill can close that gap,” said Venturi who experienced it firsthand with the duo in Cleveland.
The job is just beginning for Lombardi and the rest of the UNC coaching staff. The craziest period has ended but spring practice will be here soon and while it is typically lighter on available impact players, it gives UNC another opportunity to upgrade the roster in the spring transfer portal window. From there comes the self-evaluation on whether the roster Belichick and Lombardi put together on the fly fared as well as expected in what should be the most fascinating program to follow in the 2025 season.
Near the end of a recent call with a reporter, Lombardi was asked whether there was a book or movie he would use to guide him in his first season back in college football in 40 years. The author of two books pauses for couple seconds and then comes up with the unofficial sherpas to this year: Jim Collins’ “Good to Great” and Owen Eastwood’s “Belonging.”
“That’s ultimately what we’re trying to do,” he says. “We’re trying to create a new family here at Carolina, create a sense of belonging with everybody. And we’re trying to go from good to great.”
MORE: Meet North Carolina’s spring signees as North Carolina finalizes 2025 football roster
Read the full article here