North Carolina football general manager Michael Lombardi is pushing back after being placed on paid administrative leave. The move followed a human resources complaint filed by a former staff member. Rather than waiting quietly, Bill Belichick’s top executive hired high-profile sports attorney Tom Mars to fight the university’s decision and protect his reputation.

Hiring Tom Mars sends a clear signal to Chapel Hill. Mars is widely recognized as one of the most formidable legal minds in college sports, famous for taking on major institutions and winning. Lombardi brought him on to ensure the university handles this internal review quickly and transparently. Mars came out swinging, telling ESPN that Lombardi doesn’t even know which specific rules he is being accused of breaking yet, and called it ‘baseless’.

“Michael hasn’t been told anything about the nature of UNC’s investigation and welcomes the opportunity to clear his name, which has already been sullied by baseless statements and innuendo on social media. He is fully cooperating with UNC and expects the investigation will be swift, thorough, and fair. Michael would ask that people have the decency to let the process run its course before jumping to any conclusions about the nature of the investigation or whether there’s any merit to whatever has been alleged,” Mars told ESPN.

Mars is the guy you call when the odds are stacked against you. He has quite a reputation for getting the last laugh against the NCAA.

Regardless, at the same time, this whole cascade of troubles puts Coach Bill Belichick in a really tight spot.

He brought Lombardi along with him to Chapel Hill because they go way back to their NFL days with the Patriots and Browns. But sources say Belichick didn’t get a choice here. Apparently, the university bosses made the executive decision to bench the GM themselves.

UNC’s Chancellor even admitted publicly that he’s frustrated by what a huge distraction this is right as summer training camp is starting up.

Honestly, Lombardi wasn’t winning many popularity contests around campus or college football, anyway. Rumor has it that sports agents hated dealing with him because he treated college recruiting like the NFL, often offering players way less money than they were worth just because he thought they’d take a discount to play for Belichick.

He also raised eyebrows recently by taking a super random trip to Saudi Arabia to see if their government fund would invest money into UNC’s football program, even though there isn’t much of a correlation for such an investment in the first place.

All this drama’s hitting a team that is already under a ton of pressure to turn things around. Last season was an absolute disaster, with the Tar Heels finishing a terrible 4-8 and missing out on a bowl game completely. Not to mention, not a single player from UNC was picked in the last NFL Draft, a bit of an under-promise for someone who vowed to run the program like the NFL’s 33rd team.

The university is also spending more money on sports than ever before, nearly $188 million this past year. Even though football makes a decent profit, the school bosses aren’t in the mood to tolerate expensive legal headaches or public embarrassment when they are paying top dollar for results.

Because Lombardi is a university employee, school policy means this temporary leave can only last about 30 days, so we should get a final decision on his job by the end of August.

Right now, the university has put a lock on information, telling players and assistant coaches that they aren’t allowed to say a single word about the investigation to reporters.