For years, Michael Lombardi has been a fixture in the media circuit as a football commentator.<\/p>\n
The lifelong NFL executive has contributed to The Ringer, NFL Network, SiriusXM, and VSiN, becoming well-known to football fans beyond his work in front offices. Most recently, Lombardi was a recurring guest on The Pat McAfee Show.<\/p>\n
All those media appearances came to a halt last year when Lombardi joined the North Carolina football program as general manager, working alongside his mentor Bill Belichick. While early indications were that Lombardi and potentially even Belichick would continue to do regular segments on the show, both went mostly radio silent.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not hard to see why. Belichick\u2019s first season at UNC was one of the biggest letdowns in modern sports history, considering Belichick\u2019s stature and the high bar that he and the seemingly underqualified Lombardi<\/a> set going into the season.<\/p>\n Lombardi resurfaced Friday in an interview with McAfee<\/a>, where he sounded off on the many \u201cfake rumors and fake stories\u201d he believes were put out about the Tar Heels program.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re not worth a darn, they\u2019re not going to attack you. Some programs are not worth attacking,\u201d Lombardi said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to attack us; we expect it. It\u2019s all good. We\u2019ve been in the arena before. We don\u2019t listen to the noise. We focus on what we have to focus on, and we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n As Belichick transitioned away from pursuing an NFL head coaching job and a year in the media to coaching the Tar Heels, the negative headlines were constant. The most juicy among them focused on Belichick\u2019s relationship<\/a> with his much younger girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. Beyond the gossip fodder, there was drama around the communications staff<\/a> at UNC, leaks about a failed docuseries<\/a>, and skepticism<\/a> around Belichick\u2019s pay and contract stipulations.<\/p>\n The Tar Heels finished 4-8, but were competitive down the stretch against ACC competitors like Virginia and Duke.<\/p>\n Lombardi acknowledged the season wasn\u2019t as successful as he hoped, but said everyone at North Carolina got a big lift when the team\u2019s new recruiting class came to campus in December.<\/p>\n The faith the new players placed in UNC leadership led Lombardi to believe that the outside noise would not define the staff\u2019s tenure in Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n \u201cAll during those stormy times, all during when the boat was getting capsized, when people were attacking us with fake rumors and fake stories all over \u2014 nobody\u2019s corrected them yet, but that\u2019s OK, we understand \u2014 our players hung together,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe did not lose one single recruit to another team \u2026 and that\u2019s what I think gives all of everybody in this program the lift that we need.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tar Heels\u2019 recruiting class is ranked in the top 15 to 20 by the top national outlets<\/a>.<\/p>\n