Bill Belichick is back in the news again today thanks to his girlfriend Jordan Hudson or is she his fiancee?
I don't know.
After The New York Times reported earlier this week that the Miss Main pageant contestant shared with someone that she was engaged to Belichick, TMZ published photos yesterday showing that Belichick's boat, famously called eight Rings in honor of the Super Bowl wins with the Patriots and the Giants, has a new paint job that now reads one plus.
Eight rings end quote.
This is fueled the already ramped in speculation about their relationship status moving toward marriage, as reports continue to come in that those in Belichick's in a circle have serious concerns. Joining me now to discuss this is the man who has been leading the charge on reporting on this romance. He was a longtime colleague of mine at ESPN and is now the host of the Peabody Award nominated Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast. Pablo Tory is in the house.
What's going on, Pablo? Long time, no speak man.
How you doing, Renee. It's good to see you. Beyond just from afar. When you're court sided at a game, it's been too long, and this is a strange circumstance under which we meet again.
It's absolutely concerned. Strange, but it's really really good to talk to you. It's been a while, man, Good.
To talk to you. Good to see you doing so well. Let's get right to it.
What have you heard about whether or now Belichick and Jordan Hudson are engaged?
What can you tell the world.
Yeah, so I've been deeping this rabbit hole for months now, and what I can tell you is that as recently as March, Bill Belichick was asked directly by a close friend, are you engaged to Jordan Hudson, who at that point, by the way, was twenty three Now she's twenty four,
And Bill Belichick told that friend directly, no, I am not. Simultaneously, though, Steven A, as we examine what the most highly paid public employee in the state of North Carolina is up to his personal and professional lives being merged and blended, what we're also hearing, what I am also hearing, at least, is that Jordan Hudson has in fact been telling multiple people that they are engaged.
And so this is one of those classic messes that.
Are familiar to anybody who's been following this saga. And I've been reporting on this, talking to eleven different people who have directly dealt with both of them in this new phase of Bill Belichick's life, all of whom observe that the man is acting in a way that, as you well know, is so deeply opposite to the man that we thought we understood for about twenty years.
Why is this story so compelling, particularly to somebody like yourself. I mean, he is so I think it is seventy three, she's twenty four. That's a forty nine year different. A lot of people are uncomfortable with that stuff. A lot more people don't care. Why does Pablo Tory care talk to us about that?
It's a great question.
My mom asks me this question as she's wondering why I go from being nominated for a Peabody, winning an Edward R. Murrow or to caring about this And to me, this is a story about power seven A.
It's a story about public figures.
It's a story about what it means when a guy gets a job at North Carolina to lead young men and is hired under the pretenses of him being a lot like the guy that everybody at Carolina remembered from when he was the coach of the New England Patriots, the GM of the Patriots, a guy known for a couple of things, right, a lack of distraction, discipline, privacy, and truly an undefeated record against the media. And so this story is not merely like an age gap relationship story.
And frankly, I don't care about the age gap so much, even though I think it is certainly interesting. I'm not here to yuck Bill Belichick's youms right.
He's not the.
First older man to be intrigued by a younger woman. That's not what's new here. What's new is the fact that we knew this guy in a very distinct way, such that he was one of the most defined characters we've ever seen before, with all of those ways that he defined himself, very deliberately and proudly. And now the question is why is he acting so differently? Who was
advising him? And what does it mean that he has handed power to a twenty four year old that he met on a plane when she was nineteen.
I want you to explain how he's acting so differently. I don't see much of a difference. I remember seeing him at Boston Celtics games with a former girlfriend after he had gotten divorced. I remember seeing him as an individual that really didn't want to talk to the media at all, and when he did it was certainly begrudgingly. In this particular instance, he was coming out with a book.
I saw this interview where she was pretty assertive in that interview or whatever, and to me, that fell right in line with him only from the standpoint of he's only talking to you because he's promoting the book. And oh, by the way, having her be so invasive and so demanding during that interview that prevented him from having to be the bad guy for once.
I really didn't see much of a difference.
So when you say there's a difference in his behavior, articulate to our audience what you're seeing in terms of his behavior that so diametrically opposed anything that we've seen from him before.
Yeah, I would say, yeah, that CBS the Sunday Morning interview. That was just the glimpse, the first glimpse that the public had into the ways in which, wait a minute, there's a new person who seems to be having influence
over Bill Balichick. The reason he's acting so differently, as I have observed, it is because when he left the Patriots, when the NFL basically said you are no longer wanted here as a coach, certainly as a GM, he had to pivot to being a public figure, which means that a guy who has protected Steven and you know how this works, a guy who was protected by an inner circle in a football building, a professional football building, had
to figure out what do I do now? And so when he is not insulated by the structures, truly the structures and scheduling of the NFL, he, as we.
All saw, pivoted to media.
He launched about half dozen different media projects in which it was now you're coming to Bill Balichick because he now for the first time, wants to talk to the public, and he wants to be accepted and followed and subscribed to and appreciated as somebody who has many interesting things to say. And certainly when he was a coach, we saw him give, you know, fifteen hundred word paragraph blog answers about long snappers. But this now is Bill Belichick saying I'm here to be in public.
And the person behind the scenes who was steering.
Him what I'm reporting is that the person behind the scenes who was in charge, the boss of his media ventures,
the COO of Belichick Productions, is Jordan Hudson. And so when it comes to how is he behaving, it is the part about what his business was, and now it's the part not merely going to Carolina and being a college coach, in which he has to appeal to young men, young people and be online in this era of name, image and likeness, right, he has to be somehow fluent in the Internet for the first time, which is what he has turned to Jordan Hudson initially for.
When I talked to former players or Bill Belichick.
At the Patriots, what they say is that the most shocking part is that this man, his private life was supposed to be private. You saw him court side, you saw him on Nantucket. You saw his former longtime girlfriend of fifteen years, Linda Holiday, bring him out to parties, bring him around to those things. But this kind of thing where he's being held up rather, I mean he is holding her up by his feet doing yoga on the beach.
She's dressing as a mermaid, all of this stuff.
You know, this is where his former players are like whoa, whoa, wha, whoa, willingly posting that that's not the bill that we knew.
Well, what about the argument that the bill that we knew had to alter his way of life and his way of thinking to some degree because the NFL didn't want a six time champion as a head coach and
eight time champion overall. When you take into account the two defensive coordinator positions that I'm sorry, the two titles that he won as a defensive coordinator with the New York Giants, but the Atlanta Falcons job in particular, along with various other jobs that were available and mentioned, he couldn't get those jobs because.
He was considered the past.
You had young thoroughbreds, You had young bloods that were now running organizations that didn't want a football genius like himself as somebody that they would have to communicate with an ultimately antwit to in some kind of way because he would be the head coach of a franchise. What about the notion that that forced and compelled him to make this shift, because obviously he took a college job.
When we all know he would have preferred to be in the NFL.
Yeah, Look, the biggest signal was in the contract he signed at UNC because June first, which.
Is right upon us, is a big date.
Even a before Jordan Hudson became this public figure in the CBS interview and elsewhere, we knew that there was a clause in that contract that said the buyout that Bill Belichick could exercise on June first dropped from ten million dollars to one million dollars, right, ten times less.
That was his option if he wanted.
In fact, if he got, in fact, the offer that never came from the NFL and is not forthcoming any regard at this point. So it's always been about him wanting the NFL and having to settle for a different version of his life. And look, I don't have a lack of sympathy for anybody who does one thing at a genius level forever and then is said, with no uncertain terms, He is told, with no uncertain terms, you're not wanted here anymore.
You're over the hill.
Right.
That is a human experience as well. I am not saying that that is not at play here, but the question of what you do next is where we're discovering Bill Belichick. Really for the first time, Bill Belichick not in the NFL context. I remember what Bob Kraft, of course, the owner of the Patriots, once said to our colleague Seth Wickersham. He said Bill Belichick was an idiot savant, which is to say he is an absolute, unimpeachable genius when it comes to the football, but everything.
Else, right, he's not.
And we're just discovering the ways in which that might be true, which we have had visibility into for twenty years.
Just about a couple more questions before I let you get on out of here, Pablo, And I really appreciate because I know you got to run soon.
Do we even care about this?
If Jordan Hudson is not twenty four years of age, if she's considered.
I would right now listen the tabloid storm, the hurricane. You're absolutely right, this is catnip for everybody who wants to say. This is a story that you probably can deduce already without even clicking on the story.
Right, it is an age gap relationship, This is a gold digger. This is worse.
This is somebody who is I've seen her accused of being an only fans model and worked a call girl. Right, My reporting does not indicate that that is the case at all. This is the story to me of an ambitious young woman who in some ways reminds me of Silicon Valley. And I'll explain why I say that, because I went to school, I went to college with these Silicon Valley people, and they are ambitious and they are young, and they don't know what they don't know.
But they go into industries and they blow them up.
They blow them up, and they leave a trail of wreckage behind them because they don't understand a really key thing, which is unintended consequences. So it's not that Jordan Hudson isn't in some way clever or ambitious, or driven or determined or.
A real aspiring PR person.
But see even that, you've worked in comms around comm's people PR people for as long as anybody at this point, and you know that when you are the story, you have failed in your job. And so the question becomes, is Bill Belichick keeping her around in this way because she is good at her job?
Or is it because, as his own family fears.
According to sources around the Belichicks, he doesn't totally realize the damage being done to his legacy to Carolina, to that program, to this understanding of him.
Wait that we were so close to about that. Listen, first of all, let me say this in the interest of full disclosure.
I remember when I covered the Philadelphia seventy six ers and Larry Brown was the head coach and at the time he was fit the six years of age and his wife was twenty six. I mean, and that wasn't the only person that I saw with someone considerably younger than them. I don't understand how that could potentially equate to tarnishing the legacy of a Bill Belichick when his legacy.
Is completely tied to football excellence. That's it.
Outside of his football excellence, nobody has pretty much given the damn about Bill Belichick and his life or his quality of life or how he lives his life.
All they've ever cared about was what he did on the football field as a coach.
So, now that he's on a collegiate level instead of a pro level, if he goes to Carolina and win, or whether he wins or loses, that might be a determining factor as it pertains to how his legacy is looked upon. But I don't think his personal affairs with who he chooses to have as a girlfriend or a wife. There we say is going to impact his legacy. Is that what you're implaying.
No, I'm saying that the football star on the field, his coaching record unimpeachable. The decision making around it has been what's been called into question by everybody. And so when it comes to look, when I'm God forbid we write the oh bit for Bill Belichick one day, the first paragraph absolutely needs to be around the football.
The question is the Carolina experiment right now?
And what I'm told from Carolina is that his own inner circle, the higher ups, the administrators at the university are all saying that Jordan Hudson cannot be involved with our program.
She is not welcome in the building. They don't want her around because.
As there have been records now public records requests that have shown that she is asked to be c seed on every single email. She has been spotted in videos on the field. She is his representative, his first lady in lots of ways. It's not merely that this is a younger woman.
Is that this is a woman who.
Seeks power and has received it. Okay, and now the question is, how do you deal with that part.
Last question two parts number one, has she been officially banned by the university or is it just that they don't want her around and they've made that clear, but they're not demanding that she be banned and that she not be around.
That's number one to number two.
Do you think that Bill Belichick ever coaches a game at North Carolina? Do you think that's a job he walks away from before this season even begins because of all of this stuff involving her.
Last on what I'm reporting, Yeah, No, two great questions.
What I'm reporting is that number one, there has been, in no uncertain terms, the message from the top of the university to the football program that she cannot be associated with the program anymore.
She shouldn't be in the building, she shouldn't be on the field.
Now they have pushed back on that by saying, in a bit of an interesting PR statement Sandwich, that Jordan Hudson is not employed by the university. They confirm that for the first time in refound of my reporting, and that she is only involved with Bill Belichick in the personal capacity as his PR representative, but that she is
welcome in the building. Right, So I cannot speak to how North Carolina may be adjust what their messaging was since my report came out, they did not answer my request for comment, nor do they fulfill my Public Record's request on that front. But the second question about whether he makes it a game, my suspicion right now is that the way he is handling his press tour indicates in which he says to Michael Strahan, he says to
Christine Williamson at the ACC meetings. He says it to Ryan Clark, our colleague, right, he says, she is off to the side. This is only personal, This is not football. If he's going to agree to that in real terms, and everybody at Caroline is going to get to, frankly calm down because they can do their jobs in the way that they were hoping to as a normal program might, then I think he makes it. Of course, to week one. Do I think he lasts for more than a year?
Stephen A for a team that you know didn't win seven games last year. I would set the line absolutely at one season, a one and done scenario.
So what I especially since he's got the one million buyout, because I think an NFL team could potentially come callon, especially if he's successful North Carolina and that one million dollar BI it as supposed to be in ten million dollars. I think it's something that is doable, and I think that here return to the NFL, Pablo Torre, appreciate your man. Thank you so much for taking time out of you business schedule. I know you got to run, so get on out of hend.
Thank you again, anytime, Stevin, anytime.
All right went on with Pablo Torre. He's doing a good job obviously covering this story. I mean for me personally, ladies and gentlemen, I mean to each his own. When I thought about his personal life, I'm like, damn if it's consensual. She's an adult, he's an adult. Ain't my cup of tea going with somebody that damn young. But that's his thing.
That's his thing.
Like I said, I've covered numerous executives, coaches, etc. That messed around with people considerably younger than them. I don't think that you know this is something that could potentially affect his legacy. What I will say, however, is this, it is interesting that she's his pr representative because that is him empowering her to some degree when she kept interfering, you know, with the questioning to Bill Belichick during that interview.
It's one thing I know that she's his girlfriend.
It's one thing for people to look at her and say, hey, as his girlfriend. You know, look at how invasive she was. It's another thing entirely when you're as PR rep. Because I've seen many PR reps conduct themselves that way during interviews. I've seen PR reps stop interviews from people when they didn't like the line of questioning. So that does change things a little bit. I didn't realize she was his
PR representative. No matter which way you slice it, the man is older, he's divorced, he's got three kids.
He had a girlfriend for a while and then they broke up with her, and now he's doing this.
In the end, it is entirely possible that Bill Belichick may have the last laugh, because he's happier than the pig and mud than most of us. Some would say that if indeed it ends up going to that point, I don't know. And to be quite hondered with you, I don't give a damn. All I care about is what he's doing in the breaking any laws, all right, And he's not committing any crimes and they're in a
consensual relation, that's their damn business. What I care about is how he's gonna look coachingto Carolina Tar Hills as head coach on a collegiate level, and whether or not he's going to ever get back into the NFL as a head coach because he's not somebody that deserved to be without a head coaching job. Think about the teams that would be better off in the National Football League if Bill Belichick was coaching them as opposed to some of the other coaches that they have to answer to.
I'm just saying, I'm just saying