In light of their disastrous interview on CBS Sunday Morning, reports are now indicating that Bill Belichick’s girlfriend, the ever-controversial Jordan Hudson, has been banned from UNC’s football facilities.
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The couple’s 49-year age gap has seemingly overshadowed the head coach’s newfound role with the Tar Heels, leading to a less-than-stellar media campaign surrounding the start to his collegiate career.
Naturally, this has resulted in some of Belichick’s former players, such as Rob Gronkowski, being asked about some rather uncomfortable situations. When asked to give his opinion on the most recent batch of reports pertaining to Hudson’s ban from any and all team facilities, the former tight end jokingly defaulted to promoting his upcoming pickleball sponsorship.
“I can tell you this right now, Jordan and Coach Belichick are not banned from Pickleball with a Purpose this Sunday, I can tell you that. If she wants to, she can sign Bill up right now, and pickleball does not discriminate on age either, so everyone can play.”
While his answer is certainly indicative of the improvements that he’s made in media training, the former Patriot did ultimately concede that the narrative surrounding his former coach and his latest girlfriend has gotten a bit too “silly.” In fact, the future Hall of Famer went as far as to hint that the behavior is incredibly uncharacteristic for Belichick.
According to Gronkowski, the lack of “football talk” in Chapel Hill right now is a bit concerning, to say the least.
“In the back of your head, you’re just thinking to yourself, when you were on the Patriots, the whole goal was to eliminate all of the distractions that could possibly happen while you’re on the team. And don’t bring those distractions to the team and in the locker room. We’re just looking down at the program in North Carolina and it just feels like there’s just distractions 24/7 down there.”
For all of the unwanted attention that his newfound relationship has garnered, however, Gronkowski insisted that it wouldn’t be enough to drive Belichick away from the game of football as a whole.
However, that’s not to suggest that this couldn’t be his first and final year as a Tar Heel.
“Coach loves the game of football, he loves coaching the game of football, loves being around it. I can’t see him signing up, and just because there’s a speed bump in the way right now with what’s going on, I can’t see him quitting after that. I could see him possibly leaving after the first year, but I can see him putting in the first year in and seeing how it goes on the football field.”
Given the stoic and nonsensical approach that Belichick was revered for while in the midst of his NFL career, his recent actions have certainly surprised many, including Gronkowski. Then again, if there was ever a signal caller that was capable of drowning out the noise and producing results on the football field in spite of it, it would be Bill Belichick.
Simply put, perhaps it’s best to let the upcoming results of the 2025 season speak for themselves.
