Bill Belichick may have signed away some of his leverage at UNC before he ever coached a game. His termination-release form carries the exact same date as his hiring agreement, even though UNC admits coaches are not supposed to sign that paperwork until they are actually being fired. The school is calling it an “inadvertent” mistake, but with Belichick’s job already under scrutiny, that clerical error could become a very expensive problem if UNC decides to move on.

“Most of UNC Football’s coaches, including Bill Belichick, appear to have signed the early-termination release exhibit of employment agreements on same day they executed the contracts,” Sports reporter Daniel Libit reported via an X post. “School tells Sportico this was done ‘inadvertently.”

According to Sportico’s review of the employment contracts UNC posted publicly, 12 of the 13 football staff agreements on the athletic department’s website included a termination-release contract signed the same day as the hiring contract. Only offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino’s paperwork is clean of that pattern.

Belichick’s contract also includes two identical signature pages. One appears after the main agreement, while the other follows Exhibit A, the termination release, and both are dated January 22, 2025, being the day he was hired.

“Coaches have the option to sign the release in Exhibit A in the event of a termination for convenience,” Kevin Best, UNC’s senior director of communications, said, according to Daniel Libit of Sportico. “Though coaches are generally instructed that Exhibit A is not supposed to be signed at the time of their hiring, it sometimes is inadvertently signed at that time.”

The timing of the contract discovery lands right in the middle of a stretch where UNC has already lost two of Belichick’s closest hires. General Manager Michael Lombardi resigned amid an investigation into an HR complaint, where he agreed to leave without the buyout money.

On the other hand, Steve Belichick, Bill’s son and the team’s defensive coordinator, resigned as well, effective October 27, once his medical leave wraps up.

As for Belichick’s own contract, he is currently under a five-year, $50M contract with the first three years being guaranteed. If UNC decides to fire him without cause before the end of 2027, the school owes him everything through that point, around the $20M range depending on timing.

After 2027, with no guaranteed money left on the deal, the early-signed contract could hurt Bill’s position, as it hinders his right to challenge the probable termination.

What agents are saying about the paperwork mix-up

Brian Stanchak, founder and president of the BDS Agency, mentioned that he always asks his client to request that the signed pages “be replaced with an unsigned version” if they accidentally sign a termination release prematurely.

“In my negotiations, I always seek language that preserves the ability to negotiate the release at the time of termination,” Stanchak said, according to Sportico. “I even try to keep the coach’s name out of the sample release attached as an exhibit.”

Myles Solomon, head of coaches at agency MGC Sports, believes that early signing “could cost a coach their right to challenge their termination on any sort of employment law ground.” He added that no court would accept a coach’s “inadvertent signature” on a hiring contract.

Now, as UNC is set to host Notre Dame on Saturday in Chapel Hill, the game will be as much a deciding factor for Belichick’s job security as any contract clause, with UNC sitting at 2-1.