Patriots
Hudson weighed in on quesitons relating to social media.
A recent public records request gave an inside view at some of the more interesting inner-workings of Bill Belichick’s early tenure as the head coach of the University of North Carolina football team.
Specifically, emails obtained by Matt Baker of The Athletic show the role that Belichick’s girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, has played in certain public relations decisions.
In response to the March news that Belichick had previously asked that Hudson be included on various administration emails, the records request to review publicly available emails (as UNC is a public university) was made to get a closer look.
It reveals that Hudson, among other decisions, reached out to “raise awareness regarding a sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious, frequently occurring detail within media releases and social media posts” pertaining to the UNC handling of Belichick’s decision to hire his son, Steve Belichick, to be the team’s defensive coordinator.
Hudson wanted the social media team to be mindful of avoiding the charge of nepotism in Belichick’s hiring of his son (he also hired his other son, Brian, to be another defensive assistant).
“Though Steve Belichick is in fact Bill’s son, he should be depicted and represented as his own established, credible entity as opposed to an extension of Bill,” Hudson wrote in a December email. “It can be easily misinterpreted that Steve is simply benefitting from nepotism but that is not the case. Steve was fortunate to have learned defensive football strategy from the ‘greatest defensive mind’ of all-time. He has earned his position due to his performance and output.”
Prior to being hired by his father, Steve Belichick worked the 2024 season as the University of Washington’s defensive coordinator. The team went 6-7 during his lone season as part of the coaching staff.
Hudson wanted posts to focus on “emphasizing” Steve Belichick’s prior college coaching experience.
“I believe being strategic about the depiction of the Steve (sic) will prevent controversy and show upmost (sic) respect towards Steve’s career, validate Bill’s decision as a HC to hire Steve,” she explained.
Aside from emails declining various interviews — including Charles Barkley, who Belichick referenced by his nickname as “Sir Charles” — Baker pointed out that Hudson’s role is infrequent.
Hudson’s job experience includes spending a year as a social media ambassador (with 80,000 followers on Instagram) for Rebel Athletic, a clothing company. Given her focus on social media, it’s not surprising that the other major takeaway was focused on that component of UNC’s administration.
In February, she reached out to North Carolina’s senior associate athletic director for external affairs and strategic communications, Robbi Pickeral Evans, to ask if there was “anyone monitoring the UNC Football page for slanderous commentary and subsequently deleting it / blocking users that are harassing BB in the comments?”
Belichick weighed in afterward.
“I cannot believe that UNC would support my being called a ‘predator,’” he charged, though Baker pointed out that neither provided specifics.
Evans replied that the school had taken steps to hide or block comments about Belichick and Hudson’s relationship, and that — while they could not find the exact post in which Belichick had been called a predator — it was “incredibly inappropriate, and as you noted below, UNC would NEVER support.”
Hudson, 24, reportedly began dating the 72-year-old Belichick in 2023 (though they reportedly met in 2021). She has appeared alongside the former Patriots coach at events in even in a Dunkin Super Bowl commercial, though (as Baker established), she does not have an agreement of official employment with UNC.
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