North Carolina football continues to get caught in the middle of Bill Belichick’s ugly breakup with the Patriots. In September, Belichick confirmed he was banning Patriots scouts from UNC football practice.
The latest saga in the melodrama sucked in one of the most popular players in program history.
Former UNC quarterback Drake Maye’s sparkling effort Sunday night against the Bills helped the Patriots send the NFL’s last remaining unbeaten to its first loss, but there was a curious lack of publicity around Maye’s efforts from North Carolina’s official X account, “@UNCFootball,” until a peace offering just before 10 a.m. ET on Monday morning.
UNC football’s social media department had been directed to avoid posting or retweeting anything Patriots-related from the school’s official “X” account, a source with knowledge of North Carolina’s social media strategy told CBS Sports.
When reports of that strategy went public Monday morning just before 8 a.m., the internet went wild about Bill Belichick’s latest shunning of the Patriots and that the popular Maye, one of the best players in school history, had been caught in the shrapnel.
The decree received significant backlash on social media and less than two hours later, North Carolina’s official account made its first post about Maye since Sept. 14. The post featured one play of Maye’s from Sunday night followed by cuts from some of his best plays as a Tar Heel.
Few of the replies to that tweet, which garnered over 700,000 views in under an hour, were about Maye’s doings. The majority of them were about the reported ban and the belated nature of the post.
“It’s pathetic that the internet had to bully Belichick into letting you post this. Drake is Carolina royalty,” said one user who lists themselves as a North Carolina fan.
UNC football’s decision to ban social media posts featuring Maye and the Patriots was a “legit directive” and “not a coincidence,” the source said. Two separate sources within the North Carolina football program described the directive as the social media team being told to not post Patriots highlights, a span that ended up lasting from Sept. 15 until the morning of Oct. 6. A spokesperson for North Carolina strategy and communications did not return a request for comment Monday morning. It is not clear whether the directive came directly from Belichick.
It is common practice for schools to use their official social media accounts to promote former players at the NFL level — highlights, awards, statistics. Maye’s game against the Bills would seem to be a prime opportunity to do just that; he completed 22 of 30 passes for 273 yards in an upset win of the NFL’s best team.
A North Carolina football source who is not involved in communications said they had not heard about a directive to shun anything Patriots-related, but described it as “not surprising,” if true.
Sifting through UNC’s recent NFL-related social media barrage from its official football account, the Tar Heels noted former running back Javonte Williams’ multiple touchdowns for the Cowboys, promoted a post-game jersey exchange from Texans’ British Brooks and Titans’ Cedric Gray, and highlighted Omarion Hampton’s long touchdown run for the Chargers the last two weeks.
Former Tar Heels ballcarrier Michael Carter ran for 51 yards and a touchdown during the Cardinals’ loss to the Titans on Sunday, but did not warrant a mention.
Before Monday morning, UNC’s last mentions of Maye from its official account on “X” came on Sept. 14, when the Patriots beat Miami. Among the highlights North Carolina’s account featured was the “Tar Heel to Tar Heel” connection with Maye hitting UNC product Mack Hollins for a touchdown. The Patriots are 3-2 this season and Maye has emerged as one of the NFL’s top young quarterbacks — fifth in yards (1,261) and 15th in touchdowns. Maye was the ACC Player of the Year in 2022, the season he led the NCAA in total offense and North Carolina finished as ACC runner-up. Maye declared for the NFL Draft following the 2023 season after etching his name No. 5 in passing and No. 4 in passing touchdowns in the North Carolina record books.
Mack Brown, who coached Maye at North Carolina, posted about Maye on his social media account on Monday morning — before UNC’s official post and after the report on UNC’s strategy.
Earlier this season, UNC banned Patriots scouts from observing practices under Belichick.
“It’s clear I’m not welcome there at their facility. So they’re not welcome at ours,” Belichick said in September.
Belichick, 73, took a year off from coaching after he and the Patriots parted ways following the 2022 season.
Since his firing from the Patriots, Belichick and owner Robert Kraft have fired barbs back and forth. When asked at Fanatics Fest in New York over the summer to describe the best move he has made in his 30 years of owning the Patriots, Kraft quickly identified the time in 1999 when he traded a first-round pick for the right to hire Belichick from the New York Jets.
Belichick later said the “big risk” was actually taking Kraft up on his offer.
“As I told Robert multiple times through the years, I took a big risk by taking the New England Patriots head coaching job,” Belichick told ESPN. “I already had an opportunity to be the head coach of the New York Jets, but the ownership situation was unstable.”
North Carolina is 2-3 in Belichick’s first season.
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