After long NFL career devoid of drama, Bill Belichick begins North Carolina era with messy PR stumbles involving girlfriend

Bill Belichick has never been one for distractions.

The six-time Super Bowl winner’s news conferences and media appearances of the New England Patriots were nearly as famous as those Super Bowl wins. Getting Belichick to discuss his football team in more than platitudes was hard enough for reporters, let alone topics outside the realm of his team or football history.

After all, he’s the same guy who told radio reporters in 2017 that he wasn’t “on SnapFace and all that” and that he’s “not really too worried about what they put on InstantChat” when asked about Antonio Brown going live on Facebook from the Steelers’ locker room.

Even after a year away from coaching, Belichick, 73, still answers most questions in a short and curt manner. In an interview with “CBS This Morning,” Belichick made it clear that he didn’t want to discuss his omission of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft from his forthcoming book.

In nearly any other Belichick interview, that would have been the most notable exchange. Yet it was dwarfed by a moment that aired just moments later, when CBS’ Tony Dokoupil asked Belichick how he and his girlfriend Jordon Hudson met.

Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson appear at the 14th Annual NFL Honors held on Feb. 6, 2025. (Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

(Christopher Polk via Getty Images)

Hudson, 24, is nearly 50 years younger than Belichick. She was just off camera during the interview and before Belichick had a chance to answer the question, Hudson curtly said, “We’re not talking about this.”

It was an awkward moment after a basic inquiry, especially since Belichick is a master at deflecting questions himself. They both should have seen the question coming. An innocuous answer would have been a non-story.

Instead, Hudson’s interruption put an even bigger spotlight on their relationship. A day after the interview aired, TMZ published a story saying “there were numerous other instances of Hudson butting in” during the interview and that she even walked out of the interview at one point and delayed it for approximately a half hour.

The CBS interview was also yet another example of the influence that Hudson has in Belichick’s professional life. Less than a month ago, an open-records request into Belichick’s emails at North Carolina revealed that Belichick asked her to be copied on his emails. Hudson, who is not an employee of the school and listed herself as the COO of “Belichick Productions” in her email signature, was shown to be serving as a PR liaison of sorts for Belichick.

She suggested ways the school could frame the announcement of Belichick’s son Steve as the team’s defensive coordinator to not make it look like a nepotism hire and was monitoring comments about her relationship with Belichick on the school’s social media pages.

Wednesday, the Athletic reported that Hudson “played an instrumental role in stopping the production” of “Hard Knocks” at North Carolina. The behind-the-scenes NFL show was in discussions to document the start of Belichick’s North Carolina tenure, but that deal fell through.

The day before the Athletic’s report, Hudson posted the screenshot of an April 10 email from Belichick to her Instagram account that included her as a recipient with the promise of a “full statement to be released later today.” A second statement was not posted to her Instagram account Tuesday.

Jordon Hudson posted an email allegedly from Bill Belichick to her Instagram feed on Tuesday.

In the email, Belichick rails against the way an interview promoting the book led to a story detailing a time he said he “f***** up” as the Patriots’ coach. The reasoning for Hudson releasing the email wasn’t readily apparent.

“The book is about how I did my job, and lessons from my 50 years in and around the NFL — not a bathroom book that highlights my mistakes,” the email said.

“I acknowledge the mistakes in the book, but of course, ‘I f****** up’ is the catch phrase. I have, at times, reluctantly, gone along with the title, cover and language in the book. I am not going to be the conductor of a hype train in the book promotion — we have enough hype to work with.”

If Belichick held out some glimmer of hope nearly three weeks ago that his promotional interviews would be spun about aspects of the book he wanted to focus on, that high-speed hype train ran over everything Sunday morning with the way that Hudson’s interruption captivated the public.

It was a cringeworthy moment even for those who aren’t versed in public relations, and one that won’t be forgotten anytime soon. Especially if Hudson releases a statement to prolong the news cycle.

When Belichick was hired at North Carolina in December, it reasoned that he’d easily master keeping attention on football like he did in the NFL.

Yet with spring practice recently concluded and the Tar Heels adding coveted players through the transfer portal, the actual football team coached by Belichick feels like an afterthought and his book is a footnote. A bigger hype train — his peculiar relationship with Hudson — is commanding all of the attention.

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After long NFL career devoid of drama, Bill Belichick begins North Carolina era with messy PR stumbles involving girlfriend

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