Henry McKenna
NFL Reporter
I think all of Belichick’s blandness led to his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, becoming the most interesting person in Chapel Hill. Hudson, 24, has taken on a role as personal publicist and operations manager for Belichick. That has given her a weighty opinion on a number of UNC football projects. She has built a major presence adjacent to Belichick.
But some have taken offense to Belichick’s professional and personal relationship with Hudson.
As someone who covered Belichick for almost 10 years in New England, I’ll share some context on Belichick and Hudson’s professional relationship. She seems to have filled the shoes of Belichick’s former right-hand man, Berj Najarian, whose title was Director of Football/Head Coach Administration.
Najarian, now working for Bill O’Brien at Boston College, was a do-everything employee for the Patriots. He managed every request for an interview with Belichick. Najarian stood in the back of the room for every press conference. He also handled the seating on the team plane and corporate speaking requests for assistant coaches,per The Boston Globe. There was no job too big or too small for Najarian. And yet no one knew who he was or the full extent of what he did, because he never once gave quotes on the record. Najarian often wore a team-issued blue tracksuit. It might be an overstatement to say his presence was understated. He was almost invisible. By design.
Berj Najarian was by Belichick’s side for much of his tenure with the Patriots. (Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Working in a similar role for Belichick, Hudson showed up to a spring practice in a snakeskin trench coat. So when she mic’d up Belichick on the field for a social media project, many saw her and posted about her on social media.
Over the past few months, Hudson has grown more polarizing. She played an instrumental role in stopping production on “Hard Knocks” at UNC,per The Athletic. She managed an interview with CBS, shutting down questions about her and Belichick’s relationship. Belichick asked that UNC attach her on all his emails. All these duties sound quite similar to Najarian’s.
The differences are obvious. 1) Hudson is dating Belichick. 2) While Hudson has a role leading Belichick’s production company, she is not a UNC employee. (Najarian was a Patriots employee.)
While Belichick didn’t want to discuss his relationship with Hudson in the interview with CBS, they have made their relationship public on social media and with red carpet appearances. Her growing persona has led to growing curiosity, which is how we’ve learned that, since Hudson met Belichick,she has reportedly amassed millions in real estate assets. She and Belichick were also thebutt of a joke on “Saturday Night Live.”
They are now a part of the celebrity conversation, in part because of their 49-year age gap.
This is the unintended consequence of ignoring the noise. Conversation about Hudson has filled the vacuum.
And so Belichick’s early days at UNC have gone awry. But he should be able to get things back under control. It would be extremely hasty to proclaim this the end of Belichick. He has weathered controversies much worse than this one, after all.
Remember when he benched Drew Bledsoe for Tom Brady?
Remember Aaron Hernandez’s arrest?
Remember Spygate and Deflategate?
Maybe Belichick has already learned that the noise is what college football is about, because he hasreportedly explored hiring a PR specialist. A PR specialist could help lower Hudson’s profile by taking her out of a public-facing role — if that’s what Belichick and Hudson decide they want. A PR specialist could help in a number of ways. But we all know that Belichick isn’t looking to a PR specialist for the real answer to get his program back on track.
He knows that there’s really only one thing he can do: Win.
It’s about winning. It always has been for Belichick. And now for Chapel Bill to drown out the rest of the noise, the growing doubt about his leadership, he needs to win immediately.
Before joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at@henrycmckenna.
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