Bill Belichick has always been keenly aware of what he needs to do to win games–even letting the Giants score in the last minute of Super Bowl XLVI to give his Pats a shot at victory.
So it’s confounding that the North Carolina head coach doesn’t realize his current media strategy of skirting questions about Jordan Hudson is jeopardizing his $10 million-a-year position with UNC, as well as his legacy as one of the greatest football coaches of all time. The grouchy coach who previously deemed “distractions” as kryptonite has allowed his own dating life to become a distraction dominating the headlines.
At this week’s ACC spring meetings in Florida, the 73-year-old head coach has agreed to multiple interviews but is deflecting questions about his personal and professional relationship with Hudson, who’s serving as his de facto manager/PR advisor.
Brian Murphy, a reporter for WRAL in Raleigh, North Carolina, disclosed on X/Twitter that Belichick or his people made no Hudson questions a condition of his interview.
ESPN’s Christine Williamson did ask a Hudson question in a live SportsCenter hit Tuesday afternoon with Belichick. “Yeah, I mean, that’s, you know, really off to the side,” Belichick responded. “It’s a personal relationship. She doesn’t have anything to do with anything at UNC football.”
Nice try, Chapel Bill.
As recently as December, Belichick instructed UNC staff to cc Hudson on all emails to him, Matt Hartman of The Assembly NC reported in March.
Belichick can’t claim their relationship is strictly “personal” as long as Hudson is managing the big business of Belichick Inc., says media consultant and Crisis PR specialist LeslieAnne Wade. Not to mention meddling in the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach’s book tour interviews, Super Bowl commercials, and the Tar Heels football program. That makes it a “professional” relationship, says Wade—period.
On the other hand, there’s a business opportunity here for both Belichick and Hudson, notes the former top PR executive for CBS Sports. The ambitious Hudson could use her newfound fame–or notoriety–to establish her own brand and business. If she pulls it off, the beauty queen (who finished second runner-up at the Miss Maine USA Pageant over the weekend, with Belichick in attendance) could establish a company that potentially survives the relationship with her boyfriend.
“If I was sitting in a room with her, I would tell her, ‘Now is the time to be your own brand.’ I understand she’s interested in fashion, beauty and design. Her brand should represent the best of Jordon Hudson and her own interests and values,” Wade tells Front Office Sports. “That would do more for her—and Bill Belichick—than what she’s doing at the moment. Instead, with all eyes on her, she’s out of her lane.”
It’s easy for critics to slam Hudson as a gold-digger manipulating a besotted old man. But it also might not be fair to Hudson, warns Boston-based PR exec Lexi Panepinto—especially when she’s trying to fill the large shoes of Patriots PR ace Berj Najarian, who served as Belichick’s shadowy PR consigliere for 25 years. Without Najarian as his right-hand man and fixer, Belichick can no longer dictate terms to the media about what questions they ask–or how they cover the most powerful coach in the NFL.
“I don’t know Jordon Hudson, and her actions or decisions may very well warrant scrutiny. But as a woman in this space, Hudson shouldn’t be taking all of the heat—solely casting her as controlling or opportunistic, when her authority in Belichick’s life seems to be a result of his own choices,” says Panepinto. “Media is part of the job for professional and college athletes and coaches. I’ve been in enough locker rooms to know it’s rarely their favorite part, but it comes with the territory. Bill, despite what he preaches, hasn’t been doing that part of his job. When Berj was by his side, he didn’t have to. It was rare and, frankly, a luxury. But at some point, Bill has to step up.”
The good news for the couple is they seem to be trying to set boundaries now, albeit in a clumsy manner. The bad news is they’re a laughingstock.
And who knows what we’ll hear from Belichick when his exclusive sitdown with Michael Strahan airs on ABC’s Good Morning America this Friday.
Will Strahan and ABC agree to ask no Hudson questions? If Strahan does ask, will Belichick wheel out his now tired “We’re on to Cincinnati” shtick? Will Hudson bark orders at Belichick and Strahan in a way Tom Brady would never have dared? I suspect the answer to all three questions is no.
The first regular season game of the Belichick era is coming up fast, with TCU visiting UNC on Sept. 1 (8 p.m. ET on ESPN).
As for “The Art of Winning” book tour that led to Belichick’s cringey interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, that seems to be on life support. Publisher Simon & Schuster is furious with Hudson for leaking an internal email about the publicity strategy for the book, according to The Washington Post. Pre-sales are underperforming, according to the paper. The continuing furor over Hudson trying to control a puff-piece TV interview has long since overshadowed the book itself.
“They are insanely suspicious of the media,” one person who’s worked on the couple for the book’s publicity told the Post. “It’s almost Trumpian.”
Add it all up and you’ve got a PR nightmare that won’t go away unless and until Belichick starts winning football games with the Tar Heels. And maybe not even then, since the couple’s ‘May-December’ romance has become fodder for Saturday Night Live and late-night comics.
The clock is ticking. After June 1, his buyout shrinks to just $1 million from $10 million. If Belichick would rather leave than deal with any new restrictions or continued media scrutiny, that’s all it would cost him.
