North Carolina football GM Michael Lombardi, a top aide to coach Bill Belichick, has been placed on paid administrative leave by the university. North Carolina Tar Heels football general manager Michael Lombardi has been placed on administrative leave, the university announced Monday. Football program does not provide details for moveLombardi had pledged to make UNC ‘the 33rd [NFL] team’North Carolina football general manager Michael Lombardi has been placed on paid administrative leave.The school announced the move with a statement Monday morning, days before the Tar Heels open preseason camp.
The school didn’t provide details as to the reason, noting that employees and athletes aren’t permitted to address the topic “as is standard procedure with personnel matters”. North Carolina football general manager Michael Lombardi has been placed on paid administrative leave.The school announced the move with a statement Monday morning, coming days before the Tar Heels open preseason camp. Lombardi's career as an NFL executive had included being the GM of the Cleveland Browns in 2013, and he was an immediate hire by the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach in Chapel Hill.The school had hired Belichick to jolt a football program that had largely been an Atlantic Coast Conference also-ran while making periodic but unsustained climbs into national relevance.A few months into Belichick's tenure, Lombardi said the goal was running a college program in a way similar to the NFL, saying the Tar Heels “consider ourselves the 33rd (NFL) team” due to the staff connections to the pros.The Tar Heels went just 4-8 in Belichick's first season.
They open his second against TCU in Dublin, Ireland, on Aug. 29.___AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football Lombardi is in charge of managing the roster in Chapel Hill and joined the Tar Heels with Belichick in December 2024
The University of North Carolina announced Monday morning that it placed its football team’s general manager — a longtime friend of head coach Bill Belichick — on paid administrative leave just over a month before the first game of the season.
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