More details are emerging about Bill Belichick's hiring process at UNC and the months leading up to it. According to ESPN Reporter Seth Wickersham, Belichick did not take kindly to the mindset of Falcons GM Terry Fontenot regarding draft strategy when the two sides were negotiating a potential head coaching hire. “Listening to Fontenot discuss drafting systems last January, as if he knew it all, bothered him,”.
Belichick, as we've seen with details about his contract and program building at UNC, wants full control of the organization he coaches. He made all personnel decisions during his time in New England and even if he were to give up that control, it appears he did not like the way Fontenot was handling his approach.
We can only now speculate of what could have been if Belichick had become the head coach in Atlanta. But with reports he and Fontenot might have had issues over draft strategy, it becomes all the more crystal clear it was not going to happen.