During one of the longest weeks of his career, Bill Belichick fumbled and stumbled during and after his cringey interview with CBS. Former players and NFL pundits asked: How can the 73-year-old coach put his career and legacy in the hands of 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson? 

Sources tell Front Office Sports Belichick’s biggest problem is the absence of his secret weapon: Berj Najarian. 

During Belichick’s 24-year run with the Patriots, Najarian stood by his side as the coach’s “consigliere,” according to the New York Times. One of his official titles was “chief of staff.” But reporters knew Najarian as the “gatekeeper” for the six-time Super Bowl–winning coach, according to the Times—and as Belichick’s “right-hand man” per CBS News. Belichick largely delegated his media relations to Najarian, allowing him to focus on football. As director of football/head coach administration, Najarian handled damage control from mundane stories to crises like Spygate. 

The two first met when Belichick was coaching the Jets. After bringing Najarian with him from the Jets to the Pats, the duo won six Super Bowls together. Belichick and Berj had connecting offices at 1 Patriot Place. Najarian had a “ton of power,” recalled former quarterback Drew Bledsoe to the Times. “Berj worried about stuff so Bill didn’t have to,” he said.

Najarian joined former Patriots OC Bill O’Brien at Boston College as chief of staff after Belichick was fired by Pats owner Robert Kraft in early 2024. That left Belichick adrift without his key media advisor and protector. Since then, Belichick has tried to put Hudson in Najarian’s role, according to former Pats players like Julian Edelman. “From what I’ve heard, Jordon is playing the Berj role,” Edelman said on his podcast with Rob Gronkowski.

That’s led to obvious problems since the ex-cheerleader doesn’t yet have the training or experience to pull it off.

“Belichick has had a personal PR guy for 20 years. But he doesn’t have Berj anymore,” said one source directly familiar with Najarian’s confidante role with the Pats. “Berj works for Bill O’Brien at BC now. So Bill’s all by himself.” 

This source doesn’t buy that Belichick was responsible for the email posted by Hudson on April 10, which uses the word “title” instead of headline for a story about his book, The Art of Winning, in The Boston Globe. The email also has a “Berj” CC’ed.

“My sense is he assigned Jordon to help on this stuff. But she doesn’t know what the fuck she doing. That email which she alleges he wrote—which clearly she wrote—is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read,” he told FOS. “Do you think, in any world, that Belichick would think that he has a say in what the Boston Globe writes? That he would have a say over the ‘title’, which is actually a headline, which is something he’d know? There’s no way he would have anything to do with that.”

For more on how Najarian helped Belichick for decades, and how his absence is affecting the coach, read Michael McCarthy’s full story here.

Larry Collmus is entering rarefied air. He is set to call his record-breaking 15th consecutive Kentucky Derby for NBC Saturday after tying Dave Johnson’s previous record of 14 last year (Johnson called the Run for the Roses from 1978 to 80 and 1987 to 2000 on ABC). 

Front Office Sports spoke with Collmus on how he got his start, the storylines in this year’s Derby, and his most famous calls. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How do you realize when you’re young that you want to call horse races, and that you’re really good at it?

My father was the guy that put in the soundsystem at the Maryland State Fair. They had horse racing there. He would have me work for him in the summer basically monitoring the sound at the race track while he did all the other stuff. 

While that was happening, I just fell in love with racing—not only what was going on on the track, but the characters around it. I got to meet so many people. I just knew at that point that I wanted to be involved in some way.

And then I started listening to different race callers around the country. There’s so many different styles of calling. I became fascinated with it, and started doing impressions of guys that I heard. When I was up in the press box, a couple guys said, “You should try doing this for real!”

They suggested to get a pair of binoculars and a tape recorder. I’d go to tracks around Maryland during weekends when I wasn’t in school, and call races, and started to get a little better at it. I was overheard by the general manager of Pimlico [home of the Preakness Stakes], and he said, “Do you want to do this for real and call one a day?” I said, “Sure!” I was 18 years old.

As far as being good at it, I don’t know. I guess that’s a matter of opinion!

When did you start to feel like, “OK, this might be my whole life.”?

Pretty much right away. I had just started going to college at Loyola in Baltimore. I was spending a lot more time at Pimlico than school. I kind of figured that this was what I wanted to do, and when the opportunity came to be the assistant announcer at the track I made the move and dropped out of school.

You can read Ryan Glasspiegel’s full conversation with Collmus, including his answer about when he realized American Pharoah could win the Triple Crown, here.

• Dwyane Wade and Candace Parker are expected to join Amazon’s NBA coverage, FOS first reported. The deals had not been finalized as of earlier this week. Wade would be a hybrid game and studio analyst, while Parker would be a studio analyst for both NBA and WNBA coverage. The Athletic reported that Stan Van Gundy will be a color commentator on the package, and Marc Stein reported that Steve Nash will be an analyst on games and in studio.
• Former Cadence13 founding partner and chief content officer Chris Corcoran has launched In the Arena Studios. One of its first programming initiatives will be LESSONS with Geno Auriemma.
• The NFL and its NFL Draft TV partners should send a bonus check to Shedueur Sanders. With the son of Deion Sanders falling all the way to the fifth round, the league posted its most-watched Day 3 ever. Overall, it was the league’s second-most-watched draft ever, averaging 7.5 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, NFL Network, and digital channels, up 27% from last year.
• Joe Micheletti is retiring from the MSG Networks Rangers TV booth after 19 seasons.  Micheletti began his MSG Networks career as the Islanders TV analyst in 1998 before joining the retiring Sam Rosen on MSG Rangers telecasts in 2006.
• “Bron: The NFL is king, football is king, you know that. You’re the king–so you know football is king,” Nate Burleson told Front Office Sports Today co-host Baker Machado.Two Netflix NFL games (Steelers-Chiefs and Ravens-Texans) averaged 24.1 million and 24.3 million viewers, respectively, in 2024, making them the most-streamed games in NFL history. Meanwhile, the NBA’s five-game slate of Christmas Day games (all simulcast on ABC and ESPN) averaged 5.25 million viewers on Christmas this year—an 84% increase from the year before, but far below the NFL numbers.
• Yahoo is selling Rivals to the On3 ownership group led by Shannon Terry. It’s a full-circle moment for Terry, who was a co-founder of Rivals and involved with selling it to Yahoo in 2007 for around $100 million. Yahoo will take an ownership group in the On3 parent company as well as a seat on the board in the transaction.

“I will admit I’m a little concerned with some of the stuff that’s going on. I might actually reach out to him to make sure everything’s good.” 

—Charles Barkley to Dan Patrick, expressing concern for his “great friend” Bill Belichick as the legendary coach struggles with a media fallout from 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson’s involvement in his CBS Mornings interview. 

Our column on Bill Belichick’s PR nightmare being due to girlfriend Jordon Hudson replacing longtime media guru Berj Najarian struck a chord.

Lexi Panepinto emailed: “Loved the piece you just posted, it’s all anyone is talking about here in Boston.”

Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal reposted the story on X/Twitter, noting: “Said this yesterday on @FelgerAndMazz. Berj was vital to Belichick behind the scenes.”

Best-selling author and film producer Armen Keteyian tweeted: “Nail. Head.”

Jon Miller tweeted: “Yep! It’s up to @the_jewilson [UNC’s assistant athletic director] to get this crap under control — they can date, be in love, whatever….but she can’t be in the building running the show. That has to stop. She needs to be put in the background ASAP…she’s a 24 year old Philosophy major. She has no qualifications.”

Ryan Gilroy added: “Another great piece Michael, and she definitely wrote that email lmao.”

But @officialstaks defended the legendary coach. “His behavior likely reflects a man who is feeling anger, embarrassment, & shame. fired by the owner & team where he won 6 Super Bowls. blackballed afterwards by NFL owners & GMs. Fans & media need to back off and cut him some slack.”