Maybe this is Bill Belichick’s way of motivating his team to get to a championship level.
The North Carolina football coach was in Raleigh on Tuesday night for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final between the hometown Hurricanes and the Golden Knights.
Belichick, as spotted by the ABC cameras during the first period, was in a suite inside Lenovo Center chatting it up with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
It’s not the first time Belichick has been at a Hurricanes playoff game, as he took in Game 2 of Carolina’s first-round series with the Devils in 2025 alongside girlfriend Jordon Hudson.
It was not clear if Hudson was in attendance on Tuesday night.
Belichick will hope to get things on a Hurricanes-like track after a rough Year 1 in Chapel Hill. A much-ballyhooed campaign at the start when the six-time Super Bowl champion Patriots head coach took over the Tar Heels program, Belichick and his squad finished 4-8 and short of playoff and bowl contention.
In January, Belichick said he believed things would go better in his second year at the helm.
“It was great, working with a lot of young players. I saw a lot of improvement both off the field and their training, conditioning, strength, explosion, all that,” Belichick said during his appearance on “College GameDay.” “And then on the field in terms of their technique, communication and so forth. We didn’t really have a recruiting class last year, a lot of new players, 70 new players to start the season. This year we’ll be in much better shape in terms of having some continuity and building forward through spring ball. I’m excited about that.”
North Carolina athletic director Steve Newmark told WRAL in May that it takes multiple years to get a program on track and that he has belief in Belichick getting the Tar Heels on that path.
“I think we’re optimistic [about] where we’re going,” Newmark said. I like the way that they’re trying to build it. We understand we’re in a performance-based sport. Coach Belichick would be the first to say that. But we feel like we’re on the right trajectory. We need to continue to show what Coach Belichick continually refers to as ‘continuous improvement.’”
As for the Hurricanes, they’re looking for the franchise’s second-ever Stanley Cup after winning it all 20 years ago.
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