Former Florida Senator and current Secretary of State Marco Rubio has had a busy few weeks in his new job trying to find a way to end hostilities between Ukraine and Russia, but he’s no stranger to changing the course of history.
Without Rubio, Bill Belichick might not be coaching North Carolina right now. The splash hire had its beginnings in political connections, according to ESPN, with Rubio playing a key role in getting Belichick — a friend of his — to Chapel Hill:
[North Carolina athletic director Bubba] Cunningham began to plan for a coaching transition following the JMU game, but it wasn’t until November that the biggest name in the search was added to his list.Belichick first sent word of his interest in the UNC job through political allies. He reached out to a longtime friend, then-Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who then contacted Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, hoping to light a fire in Chapel Hill in support of Belichick.
“Rubio follows the sports world pretty closely, and he called me and said, ‘There’s a chance Belichick would come to Chapel Hill,'” Tillis told ESPN. “He said, ‘He wants a school with a great academic reputation, and he wants to try to build a program to bring them a national championship. I said, ‘Well, let me go [make some calls].'”
What isn’t college football relying on Congress to fix for them these days?
The story as a whole is an interesting look at what sometimes goes into a college football coaching search. While some are as simple as “hey, that guy seems good, let’s hire him,” there’s often a lot more that goes into it, and as we see in this case, it isn’t always inter-office politics involved. Sometimes, it’s the actual politicians.
Now, about the price of eggs …
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/bill-belichick-hire-at-north-carolina-got-unlikely-assist-from-secretary-of-state-marco-rubio/
Author : Tom Fornelli
Publish date : 2025-03-07 19:34:00
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