Bill Belichick is dating 24-year-old former cheerleader Jordon Hudson. This is not new news. Older men date younger women. They are happy. Who are we to decide what does or does not work?
However, her involvement at North Carolina’s spring game on Saturday is unlike anything I have seen before. My eyebrow is raised.
Belichick, 72, finished his first spring period as the college football coach at UNC over the weekend. The Tar Heels will get back on the field in August prior to their season-opener against TCU on Sept. 1. There are a lot of questions about the quarterback position. Nobody knows what to expect from a mostly rebuilt roster. It will be curious to see how the greatest coach in NFL history fares in college.
Saturday’s practice, by all accounts, was unremarkable. The offense finished with only three field goal attempts in five drives. The defense struggled during red zone drills. Players did not have numbers on their jerseys. There was very little organization to the ‘Practice Like A Pro’ event.
Belichick does not care what other people think about how he runs his program. That was made abundantly clear with how much Hudson was on the field.
I have watched countless spring games and spring practices from schools all over the country. At no point did I see the wife or girlfriend of a head coach on the field as much as Hudson. Terry Saban never once walked onto the gridiron while her husband was wearing the headset, Ryan Day’s wife Nina does not talk to him in the middle of warmups, etc.
Jordon Hudson was very involved. She helps to run some of the social media for North Carolina so it made sense that she at one point put a mic on Bill Belichick for sake of content. All of the other interactions seemed excessive. There were a lot of them.
Hudson spent her entire afternoon on the field.
To be fair, it did seem as though she was trying to be helpful. I’m sure there is a method to what I perceive as madness. Belichick is not going to let Hudson get in the way of success. They have a system that works for them. It seems to be the new reality in Chapel Hill.
That doesn’t mean we can’t ask questions. Belichick asked his employees to CC his girlfriend on emails upon arrival to North Carolina. Hudson was all over the field during the final spring practice.
Why? What purpose does she serve outside of social media content? Who decided to include her in day-to-day operations? How do the other coaches feel about her involvement? Is she on staff?
Bill Belichick will never answer any of those questions. Jordon Hudson might post a subtle jab at all the criticism but she will not directly answer them either. It is an arrangement I have never seen in college football and I will be curious to see if/how it continues.