University of North Carolina football players gave their honest opinions about their head coach Bill Belichick’s high-profile relationship with his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson.
Members of the Tar Heels team were asked about Belichick, 73, and Hudson, 23 — who made their romance official in October 2024 — at ACC Media Days on Thursday, July 24.
“Social media can promote some narrative, but that was not a distraction to us at all,” sophomore wide receiver Jordan Shipp told reporters. “There was never a problem, like people saying she was running practice. We’d never really see her in the building. That was never a problem.”
When Shipp, noted that he used to have breakfast nearly every day last season with former North Carolina head coach Mack Brown’s wife, Sally Brown, Belichick piped in to quash any speculation about Hudson’s relationship with his players.
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“I don’t think Jordon’s had lunch with anybody,” he said.
North Carolina sophomore quarterback Gio Lopez acknowledged the narratives surrounding Belichick’s relationship have been impossible to ignore, but insisted all of the attention hasn’t impacted daily football operations.
“I log on my phone and see something about Coach Belichick, so it is different, of course,” Lopez said. “But you’d never think that about him. He’s a normal guy, a normal coach. That’s how he carries himself. He’s very personable, not worried about the spotlight. He just does his job.”
Belichick was also asked about all of the interest in his personal life on Thursday, which he called “noise.”
“Sometimes it’s noisy and sometimes it isn’t,” Belichick told ESPN. “Sometimes with the Patriots it was noisy, too.”
Belichick was officially announced as the new head coach at the University of North Carolina in December 2024. He previously coached the NFL’s New England Patriots for 24 seasons from 2000 to 2023, winning six Super Bowls with the franchise.
Since his hiring, controversy has swirled about Hudson’s involvement with Belichick’s job.
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In May, journalist Pablo Torre reported on his podcast, “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” that Hudson had been banned from the university’s football facilities.
“I don’t think you’ll be hearing much from Jordon moving forward,” a source at the school allegedly told Torre.
After the episode was released, Carolina Athletics issued a statement to Us Weekly denying Torre’s reporting.
“While Jordon Hudson is not an employee at the University or Carolina Athletics, she is welcome to the Carolina Football facilities,” the school said in a statement on May 9. “Jordon will continue to manage all activities related to Coach Belichick’s personal brand outside of his responsibilities for Carolina Football and the University.”
