North Carolina football has endured a turbulent offseason filled with unwanted headlines. The situation took another hit when the Tar Heels’ general manager, Michael Lombardi, was placed on paid administrative leave, earning him some hard takes from many veteran analysts.
Michael Lombardi’s Troubled UNC Run Sparks Harsh Take From Bruce Feldman
Lombardi arrived at North Carolina alongside Bill Belichick in December 2024. Two months later, he told the Associated Press that the program considered itself “the 33rd [NFL] team,” but the Tar Heels have faced one controversy after another since. Lombardi drew criticism last year when he informed the New England Patriots, on Belichick’s directive, that their scouts would be barred from UNC practices, a move that drew widespread attention across the league.
The results have been equally disappointing on the field, as the Tar Heels finished with a 4-8 record last season and failed to produce a single NFL Draft pick in 2026.
The Tar Heels’ decision reportedly stemmed from a human resources complaint filed by a former UNC front-office employee, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, with a pending investigation into the matter.
Separately, the football program is reportedly under investigation by the College Sports Commission, the body that handles compliance and enforcement of NCAA and NIL rules, according to reporting from Pablo Torre. No details of that probe have been made public, though The Athletic reported that Lombardi’s actions are believed to be of interest.
College football insider Bruce Feldman absolutely ripped apart Lombardi on “The Audible” podcast after the latest controversy.
“He is without question the worst general manager in college sports,” Feldman said. “He should be getting his paycheck with a ski mask on. I’m sorry.
“This is such a staggering amount of ineptitude in the job he’s had for Bill Belichick. I go back to the big story we did last year, and he was a focal point of it. It’s the arrogance, it’s the abrasiveness. I mean there’s a lot of qualities that have rubbed people the wrong way for a long time.”
Lombardi joined the Cleveland Browns in 1987 and later worked under Belichick there from 1991 to 1995, before reuniting with him in New England from 2014 to 2016 as an assistant to the coaching staff. Their reunion at UNC was expected to reshape the football program, but the experiment backfired, and Feldman placed much of the responsibility on Belichick as well.
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“Bill Belichick has been one of the people who has been in his corner and always, and the fact that Bill Belichick trusted him to have the most important job of anybody he could hire, and it has blown up in his face and North Carolina’s face spectacularly,” Feldman said. “Like, I don’t want to remove any culpability here and responsibility from Belichick. This is his guy. He made this move. You have to own that.”
The timing could hardly be worse for UNC, which hopes to rebound in Belichick’s second season in 2026. The Tar Heels are set to open their upcoming season against TCU in Dublin, Ireland, on Aug. 29.
