Bill Belichick doesn’t want to talk about the person who notoriously told him not to talk about how they met.
During the ACC Spring Meetings, Belichick agreed to do a sit-down interview with Brian Murphy of WRAL-TV in Raleigh. Before the interview plays, Murphy explains that North Carolina asked him “to keep questions about football.”
Murphy will get credit from some for disclosing that North Carolina told him not to ask about the Jordon Hudson dynamic. But Murphy had to add that disclaimer; otherwise, people would watch the six-minute interview and get to the end and wonder what the hell happened.
Frankly, Murphy and WRAL should have refused to do the interview. Hey, UNC, you want free publicity for your football program? Don’t attach stupid conditions on the questions that can and can’t be asked.
Bill Belichick is a big boy. Despite his accomplishments, he’s not above being asked the most obvious question anyone would ask him.
He chose to involve Hudson in his professional life. Even though he tried to claim during an ESPN interview on Wednesday that it’s simply a “personal relationship,” it wasn’t and it isn’t. He allowed that to happen.
Belichick does himself no favors by running from the questions that naturally flow from this most unusual set of circumstances. UNC, which reportedly has hired former Bears P.R. executive Brandon Faber, does Belichick no favors by attempting to shield “the greatest coach of all time” from fair questions about the extent to which she was involved in the football operation — and how that came to an end.
There’s still an unresolved issue over Pablo Torre’s report that Hudson had been banned from the football facility and UNC’s carefully-worded statement that, at the most superficial level, refutes the reporting. Something went down in the aftermath of the disastrous CBS interview. Why should Belichick be shielded from answering questions about the apparent push-and-pull that resulted in Hudson being very involved with UNC football to not being involved at all.
Remember, UNC is a public institution. It receives public money. The idea that UNC would limit public access to relevant information has a much different feel than it would if it were a truly private business.
Above all else, the situation proves (conclusively, in our view) that Belichick is bothered by all of this. That he allowed himself to get over his skis. That he flew close to the sun on wings of on to Cincinnati.
Belichick created a personal situation that became a professional situation that morphed into one of the biggest stories in all of sports. Even if he didn’t plan it for publicity purposes (and he surely didn’t), it happened.
Conditioning interviews on the interviewer not even checking the box with a question that allows him to recite his talking point makes him look lame. It makes him look small. It makes him look weak. Which is the worst look any football coach can have.
It all continues in two days, when Belichick appears on Good Morning America. Does ABC really need to have EXCLUSIVE! access to Belichick if exclusivity entails the exclusion of the most interesting subject?
If Belichick or UNC attempt to attach any conditions to that interview, GMA should cancel it. The ratings for Friday’s show will be the same either way.
In his capacity as head coach of the North Carolina football program, Bill Belichick has had two press conferences: one when he was hired, and one at the start of spring practice.
On Tuesday, he’s present for the ACC Spring Meetings. Appearing on ESPN, Belichick was asked about the topic of the moment — his personal and professional relationship with 24-year-old (and possibly 23-year-old, which is true would mean she was 19 when they met) Jordon Hudson.
“Yeah, I mean, that’s, you know, really off to the side,” Belichick said. “It’s a personal relationship. She doesn’t have anything to do with anything at UNC football.”
That might be true now, especially if (as it appears) UNC football recently made sure that’s the case. But that’s clearly not how it was. She had sent emails to UNC staff regarding ways to minimize the appearance/reality of nepotism in the hiring of Steve Belichick as the program’s defensive coordinator, and regarding criticism of Belichick appearing in comments on UNC-operated websites.
Regardless of whether she’s currently involved with UNC football, Belichick himself called the relationship both personal and professional in his statement criticizing the “false narrative” created by the CBS interview in which she directed him not to answer the hard-hitting question of how they met.
Moving forward, it will be interesting to see whether she doesn’t, or does, have involvement with the football program. And whether the tension that went from simmer to all-out boil two weeks ago will prompt him to write a check for $1 million on or after June 1 and walk away.
Bill Belichick’s recent run of not-great P.R. has been very good for his 24-year-old (or perhaps 23-year-old) girlfriend/handler/publicist.
Although she recently finished third in the Miss Maine USA pageant, she has received at least one TV offer.
The Daily Mail, via AwfulAnnouncing.com, reports that Hudson has received an offer to appear on the next season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. She likely will decline it, per the report, because it will conflict with North Carolina football season. (Frankly, some within the North Carolina football program may have preferred she accept, for that very reason.)
She still wants to parlay her Belichick-fueled fame/notoriety into TV work.
“Whatever Jordon would like to get into, in front or behind the cameras, she wants to do some shows in the hosting realm,” an unnamed source told DailyMail.com.
It’s no surprise. It’s been obvious, based on the reporting and the basic reality of having functioning eyeballs and basic common sense, that she’s looking to parlay her connection to Belichick into something big for herself.
Whether it’s managing, marketing, and/or generally leveraging his IP or parlaying the current moment into something more, she has an ambition that doesn’t stop with a failed effort to wear the crown of Miss Maine USA.
The University of North Carolina football program has struggled in the P.R. department over the past few weeks. It has now hired a new P.R. executive.
Via Albert Breer of SI.com, former Bears P.R. director Brandon Faber has joined the UNC program.
Breer explains that Faber will work directly for North Carolina, not Belichick. Still, this is a Belichick hire. And it’s possible that Faber will work separately for Belichick, when it comes to non-UNC issues.
Belichick had been talking to Faber for a couple of months. The need for outside help became more pronounced in recent weeks, as Belichick’s girlfriend/handler/publicist Jordon Hudson made things very bad for Belichick and, necessarily, UNC when interrupting a softball interview with CBS.
Faber was present for last week’s NYU Belichick book-tour event. Last month, he appeared on the sideline for North Carolina’s Saturday spring-practice finale.
Ultimately, this is a Belichick move to hire Faber, who spent more than 20 years working for multiple Chicago pro sports teams — the NBA’s Bulls, the NHL’s Blackhawks, and the Bears.
The move comes only days after Hudson reportedly was banned from the UNC building. Although North Carolina refuted Pablo Torre’s eyebrow-raising report, the UNC statement specifically explained that she does not work for North Carolina and that, moving forward, she will “manage all activities related to Coach Belichick’s personal brand outside of his responsibilities for Carolina Football and the University.”
A man who helped derail Bill Belichick’s perfect season will help revive Belichick’s imperfect book tour.
Via Andrew Buchholtz of AwfulAnnouncing.com, ABC has announced that Hall of Fame defensive end Michael Strahan will interview Belichick on Friday morning. Strahan, if you didn’t know, is one of the hosts of the ABC morning show.
The biggest question now becomes what the questions will be. Interview subjects sometimes try to place limits on what can be asked. Some outlets will comply. Others will say, “It’s up to us to ask the questions. It’s up to you to have answers ready.”
Strahan’s credibility will be on the line in this one. If it’s all softballs and setups for Belichick to say whatever he wants to say, it will appear as if Strahan gave in order to get the “get.” If Strahan comes after Belichick the way Strahan used to go after Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, it will be obvious that no deal was done.
It’s hard to imagine Belichick agreeing to a no-holds-barred interview, given the contents of his prickly email regarding the publicity efforts for his book. Still, Strahan will need to come at Belichick with at least one question that makes him harumph or sigh or roll his eyes. Otherwise, Strahan will be perceived as taking the same kind of dive Brett Favre once did, when Strahan was trying to break Mark Gastineau’s single-season sack record.
The past two weeks in the life of former Patriots coach Bill Belichick has sparked a string of stranger-than-fiction stories.
The latest? The 73-year-old curmudgeonly football savant made an appearance on Saturday at the Miss Maine USA pageant in support of his girlfriend.
Via Steve Buckley of TheAthletic.com, Belichick was among 200 or so spectators for Saturday’s portion of the event in which Jordon Hudson is a contestant.
Belichick had a front-row seat for the 45-minute session at the Holiday Inn in Portland.
The pageant continues today at 1:00 p.m. ET, with Hudson trying to improve on her first runner-up performance from a year ago.
Hudson’s involvement with Belichick, which had been simmering for months, reached full boil two Sundays ago, when CBS televised a book-tour interview that went sideways when Hudson, who was off camera, told Belichick not to answer a question regarding how they met.
The recent in-depth reporting from Pablo Torre on Pablo Torre Finds Out attempted to address the reluctance to address a topic on which Hudson had previously been an open book, literally and figuratively. They met in February 2021 on an airplane. He signed a deductive logic book for her.
Applying deductive logic of his own, Torre identified two possibilities, via AwfulAnnouncing.com. One, there’s a potential deal in place (or at least in the works) that would make those details an exclusive part of a future reality show. Two, Hudson may be a year younger than she claims. If so, it would mean that, when she met Belichick, she was only 19.
It’s one thing for a guy pushing 70 to pursue a 20-year-old. It all has a much different vibe if she was only 19.
The next development comes today, when she either wins the Miss Maine USA pageant or she doesn’t. To the extent that the parent pageant, Miss USA, hopes to maximize interest and ratings for the competition that happens later this year, a thumb could be slipped on the scale in her favor.
Maybe that’s why she has become so prominent in recent weeks. Even if the publicity has harmed the broader interests of Belichick, his legacy, and UNC football, it potentially helps her get what she wants — the Miss Maine USA crown and a spot in the upcoming Miss USA contest.
Bill Belichick’s commitment to North Carolina came with a clear caveat. His contract contains a buyout clause.
When it comes to that buyout clause, the most important date is June 1, 2025.
On that day — only three weeks from tomorrow — the payment necessary for Belichick to exit the deal plummets from $10 million to $1 million.
Initially, that reduction was viewed as a quick and easy path for Belichick to get back to the NFL. Now, it becomes Belichick’s potential escape hatch from what may have become a bad relationship.
Setting aside whatever cracks in the foundation may have previously existed, Friday could be the day when it all came crashing down. Pablo Torre’s reporting, which basically stands for the idea that Belichick was told his 24-year-old girlfriend can’t work for the football program any longer, could be the thing that gets her to do something like what she reportedly did at his recent CBS interview.
Stand up, proclaim “Bill, we’re leaving,” and storm out.
In three weeks and one day, he can walk away with the stroke of a seven-figure pen. What’s $1 million to him? He has already made more than that since taking the job, given that his annual salary is $10 million.
With the current buyout at $10 million, Belichick couldn’t simply up and leave in response to whatever has happened to date. On June 1, he can.
Even if he doesn’t, it gives him a little leverage. If UNC makes demands he doesn’t like, he can remind them that all he has to do is write a check and he’s gone.
There’s a chance that, at this point, the school might welcome that. Maybe they’d even tell him to keep his $1 million. Maybe, at some point, they’d even give him $1 million or more to go.
Last weekend, PFT reported that North Carolina coach, and former long-time Patriots coach, Bill Belichick has been talking to former Bears P.R. chief Brandon Faber regarding a role with UNC and/or Belichick directly. Two days later, Faber was apparently working directly for Belichick.
The New York Post reports that Faber was present with Belichick for his most recent public event in connection with the promotion of his new book, on Tuesday at NYU.
As we understand it, Belichick has been talking to Faber for a while, with the conversation predating the not-great CBS interview that made Belichick’s personal/professional relationship with 24-year-old Jordon Hudson a mainstream news story.
Per the Post, Hudson was present in New York and planned to attend the NYU event. However, she ultimately did not.
As someone recently pointed out to PFT, Faber also can be seen at times in the video from the North Carolina final spring practice that went viral due to Hudson’s prominent role in entering and exiting the field and speaking directly to Belichick. Faber is the person in the left foreground, wearing glasses.
It remains to be seen whether Faber will become an official employee of the UNC program.
The entire Belichick/Hudson story, which had quieted down considerably, returned to the front burner on Friday, after Pablo Torre of Meadowlark Media reported that she has been banned from the UNC football facility. North Carolina issued a statement disputing that she has been banned. A careful reading of the statement, however, makes multiple key points regarding the fact that she has never been employed by North Carolina, and that she will not be working for North Carolina in the future.
Previously, she had been directly involved with the program. She had communicated with UNC media employees with advice on how to properly frame defensive coordinator Steve Belichick’s role in order to minimize claims of nepotism, and with concerns about comments critical of Belichick that had been posted on UNC-operated websites.
Hudson also was personally involved in negotiations with NFL Films regarding the plan to feature UNC football in offseason Hard Knocks. She reportedly played an “instrumental role” in derailing the project.
It’s been two weeks of P.R. mud for the Tar Heels. And two weeks of mopping it up.
On Friday morning, North Carolina issued a statement in response to a report that Bill Belichick’s 24-year-old girlfriend/handler/publicist has been banned from the football facility.
“While Jordon Hudson is not an employee at the University or Carolina Athletics, she is welcome to the Carolina Football facilities,” the statement explains, via Chris Vannini of TheAthletic.com. “Jordon will continue to manage all activities related to Coach Belichick’s personal brand outside of his responsibilities for Carolina Football and the University.”
While the development will be regarded by some as a refutation of Pablo Torre’s reporting, this seems to be a carefully worded potato/potahto situation. Especially since the statement begins by pointing out that Hudson “is not an employee” of the school.
While she surely hasn’t been told that visiting Belichick at work would amount to trespass, she quite possibly has been told that, as someone who isn’t employed by North Carolina football, she should not be working for North Carolina football. No more emails. No more meetings. No more anything that an employee would be doing on behalf of the football program.
You know, the way it already is for every other coach of every other major college or professional football program. By saying Hudson “will continue to manage all activities related to Coach Belichick’s personal brand outside of his responsibilities” at the university, UNC is pointing out that she will be doing nothing as it relates to the interests of the university.
That’s the news. Not that she’s forbidden from setting foot in the building. That she’s expected, as a non-employee of North Carolina football, to act accordingly.
North Carolina apparently do not believe that any publicity is good publicity.
When it comes to Jordon Hudson, the 24-year-old girlfriend/handler/publicity for UNC coach Bill Belichick, recent publicity tracing to her involvement in a disastrous CBS book-tour interview has been bad for everyone. Except perhaps for her.
Via AwfulAnnouncing.com, the latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out includes a strong claim. Per Torre, it’s been bad enough for North Carolina to prompt the Tar Heels to give Hudson the boot.
Specifically, Hudson reportedly has been banned from the football facility.
“Two sources at the University of North Carolina tell me that there has been a decision that was made last week by the higher-ups inside the athletic department that had hired Bill Belichick to be the highest paid public employee — not just coach in the state of North Carolina at $10 million a year — and that decision was that Jordon Hudson, she is no longer allowed in the football building,” Torre said. “She is not allowed on the football field.”
Torre predicted we won’t “be hearing much from Jordon moving forward.’”
Hudson had been largely quiet for the past week or so. However, she already has retweeted a message that criticizes the report that she has been banned from the UNC facility. Here’s the message she amplified: “We live in a culture much too rife with lazy conspiratorial thinking so I try to be very careful when speculating about where real nefariousness exists but this one feels like someone is trying to put the screws (no pun intended) to Belichick and Hudson is part of a bigger plot.”
It’s unclear whether this means Hudson disagrees with the report, or whether she objects to the end result: That she’s no longer welcome in a workplace where she was never actually employed.
Torre aded that “Bill Belichick’s family is extraordinarily concerned by what has transpired,” and that there is “deep worry for how detrimental Jordon can be for not just North Carolina but Bill’s legacy, reputation — everything he has built and worked for over decades.”
The family, according to Torre, is also doing their homework on Hudson.
This will now go one of two ways. Either it will all die down. Or it will all get worse. If it’s the latter, it could happen quickly.
