NFL star Stephon Gilmore recalls moment furious Bill Belichick left him in tears with brutal criticism

North Carolina football players: You've been warned.

Head coach Bill Belichick doesn't care if you're a top recruit or, for that matter, Tom Brady. The first-year Tar Heels generalissimo will skewer anyone in front of the entire team for the slightest mistake. And if there's any doubt, just ask former NFL Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore, who was nearly brought to tears during one film session.

'He killed me one day, bro,' Gilmore told The Money Down podcast. 'It was when I first got there.'

The cornerback was New England's big offseason acquisition in 2017, and although he would contribute to the Patriots' sixth Super Bowl win the following season, he had yet to find his footing in Foxboro.

That all changed after an early-season game in which he failed to defend a 'bunch route,' which refers to a tight grouping of receivers along the line of scrimmage.

'I got picked,' Gilmore said, explaining he was bumped off his assignment by another receiver.

Belichick apparently wasn't very sympathetic.

'Bro, he killed me the next meeting,' Gilmore said. 'I almost cried, how he did me. I ain't going to lie to you. I went to the bathroom, like man, bro.'

Of course, there's a reason behind Belichick's tactics, as Gilmore soon discovered. 

'I can tell you one thing,' Gilmore said. 'I ain't never got picked again after that.'

Gilmore, who remains a free agent after playing in Minnesota last season, is far from Belichick's only victim.

Even Brady got an earful, as remembered by former teammate and Hall-of-Fame receiver Randy Moss.

'Bill tore Brady's head completely off. Decapitated Brady,' Moss said during an episode of Apple TV's Patriots documentary, 'The Dynasty.'

'He said, "You guys are telling me that my Hall of Fame quarterback cannot complete a five-yard out?"'

Brady, it seems, was a frequent target of Belichick's before their 2020 split.

'When I first got to New England, I was surprised how Belichick had treated Brady,' Patriots wide receiver Donté Stallworth remembered during The Dynasty.

'[He] turns around, he looks at Brady, and he says, "What the (expletive) is this (expletive)?"

'He plays it again, and he looks back halfway, and he turns, and he says, "I can get Johnny f***ing Foxboro from down the street to make a better pass than this."'

Long-time Brady teammate Matthew Slater had similar memories.

Quoting Belichick, Slater said: 'The quarterback play here is just awful. This stinks.'

Slater continued in first person: 'I'm sitting there, I'm sure my mouth is wide-open because I'm like, "That's Tom Brady. This guy has won four Super Bowls." But I think that speaks to Bill, right?

'To him, nobody is bigger than the team. He's gonna coach everybody the same because he feels like that's going to give the team the best chance for success, and honestly he's not worried about hurting anyone's feelings. He really doesn't care. If you're offended, get out, I'll find somebody else.'