Whatever is going on with Michael Lombardi, the longtime personnel confidante to Bill Belichick, who won six Super Bowls in New England, and was 4-8 as a rookie college coach at North Carolina last year, it was enough to get Lombardi to quit as the GM for the UNC Football program.
The school announced Lombardi’s resignation in a brief media release on Thursday.
Effective September 3, 2026, Michael Lombardi has resigned from his position as General Manager of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s football program. The University will continue its ongoing investigation and will consider all appropriate corrective actions responsive to the information it learns.
We don’t know really anything about the focus of the “ongoing investigation,” though reports have had it that it might have to do with a human resources complaint filed by a former UNC front office employee.
Lombardi was getting $1.5 million a year from UNC to do his wonders, which ended up with Belichick getting a Group of 6 level roster that was only able to produce wins over Charlotte, Richmond, Stanford and Syracuse.
Lombardi released a statement of his own on Thursday:
I want to thank Chancellor Roberts and Bill Belichick for the opportunity to serve as the GM of UNC Football. I have decided it’s best for me to resign my position as GM to allow the team to focus on the ‘26 season.
Just last week, his lawyer, Tom Mars, told The Athletic that the investigation into Lombardi was a “lengthy witch hunt,” basically daring the school to try to fire Lombardi for cause, precipitating a court battle over the money due over the remainder of his three-year contract.
“In today’s world, $1.5 million is just a drop in the bucket, so there must be other reasons behind this multimillion-dollar investigation,” Mars said.
They’re calling his bluff, with the notation in the statement that they’re going to continue the investigation, with “appropriate corrective actions” to come.
Be careful what you wish for, would seem to be the lesson here.
Share
Chris Graham
