Bill Belichick is denying that his 25-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, holds any decision-making role within the University of North Carolina football program he now leads. The 74-year-old head coach addressed the matter directly in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Wednesday.
Belichick called reports suggesting Hudson acts as a general manager of the team “ridiculous.”
“The way the story was picked up was a long way from that. Like, ‘She’s trying to be the general manager of the team,’ and it’s so ridiculous,” Belichick said.
Belichick explained that Hudson’s involvement has been limited to helping coordinate his personal schedule, a task he says became necessary given how much he had going on when he took the UNC job in December.
“When I took the job here, it was December, and at that time I was doing five TV shows, the radio show, I had a book coming out. I had a lot of other things going on when I took the job,” Belichick said.
He also addressed a leaked email in which he asked that requests for personal appearances be forwarded to Hudson. Belichick said the email was mischaracterized as proof that she is looped into everything he does.
“Well, that was leaked as released as ‘Jordon’s involved in every single thing that I do, and she’s copied on every email,'” Belichick said. “That’s just a flat-out lie.”
Belichick further downplayed public records requests Hudson filed seeking communications between reporters and university employees about the couple, describing the requests as seeking “things that had already been sent.”
The comments come as UNC’s football program has been under scrutiny amid an internal investigation into the program’s culture. Belichick’s son recently resigned as the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator as that investigation was closing.
Hudson has kept a low public profile in recent months. She made her first appearance of the season at a UNC game last weekend, when the Tar Heels beat East Tennessee State 35-3 to move to 2-0.
