Remember when folks at North Carolina were nervous that Bill Belichick was possibly treating the Tar Heels job as a bird in the hand while he waited for potential NFL interest? Remember how folks like Lombo tried to shout down such chatter by attacking the messenger?

Nothing anyone said changed the fact that the contract Belichick eventually signed included a $10 million buyout that plunged to $1 million on June 1, 2025. If Belichick ever wanted to show a true and full commitment to UNC, all he had to do was tell the school to remove that clause.

It wasn’t removed. It’s in his official contract. Now, June 1 has arrived. And while the notion that any NFL team would want to hire Belichick seems quaint at this point, Belichick’s ability to write a check and walk away shifts the rhythm of the awkward ongoing square dance at Chapel Hill.

Belichick, as of today, has far more power. If he doesn’t get want he wants, he can pay the money and leave. If they try to take something he has, he can pay the money and leave. If they persist in their position that his 24-year-old girlfriend/handler/publicist/idea mill/creative muse Jordon Hudson isn’t allowed to work for the football program, he can pay the money and leave.

Likewise, the situation gives Hudson an opening to tell Belichick, whenever she wants, to pay the money and leave.

Over the past five weeks, it’s become obvious that her ambition far exceeds dating the head coach of a mid-level college football program at a basketball school. If anything, Bill’s job is getting in the way of her goals. Throw in the fact that she quite possibly believes she has been disrespected by the powers-that-be at UNC, and she could tell Bill — whenever she wants — that they’re leaving.

Yes, he’d be walking away from roughly $25 million in guaranteed pay. To get it, however, he’ll have to devote 2.5 more years of his life to the job. If she doesn’t want him to do that, what will he do?

Remember what Channing Crowder said after witnessing their interactions: “She kind of coordinates and brand manages. She has her paws on the situation. It’s different . . . It was weird to be around Belichick and Jordon. . . . I don’t see Belichick in that light. But he just smiles and nods. . . . His old lady is different. . . . She lurks. It’s weird to know him as Coach Belichick running the entire organization as G.M., head coach, talent coordinator, all that stuff, and then to see this tiny, little 95-pound girl kind of — pretty much telling him what to do.”

Pretty much telling him what to do.

Crowder’s observations buried a big, fat needle into a raw, exposed nerve. They prompted a public apology, a clumsy effort by Ryan Clark to put the toothpaste back in the tube, and a cartoonish deletion of the portion of the radio show on which Crowder shared his frank and candid perceptions.

As of today, the relationship between Belichick and North Carolina takes on a new dynamic. As of today, he has the contractual power to buy his way out of the job. As of today, she has the power to pretty much tell him to do it.