After The CBS Interview, UNC’s Belichick Situation Is Getting Worse
UNC football may be in a perilous situation
UNC A.D. Bubba Cunningham has not had a great spring.
First, UNC got a controversial bid to the NCAA basketball tournament and many people assumed that there was some corruption involved since Cunningham was the the chair of the selection committee and not many people thought UNC was going to be in the field.
Was it fair? It’s arguable. Cunningham was due to get a large bonus if UNC made the field, but under long-standing rules, he couldn’t be in the room when the Tar Heels were discussed. However, he could vote against other marginal teams and there’s probably a certain level of horse trading in the background. Call it politicking if you prefer.
It wasn’t end of the world type stuff, but it didn't look good.
Then there is the hiring of Bill Belichik.
The long-time coach of the New England Patriots had been out of work since parting company with the team in 2023. Belichick was linked to several NFL jobs since but for whatever reason, no one was willing to hire him.
Until Cunningham brought him to Chapel Hill.
At the time it seemed a bit of an odd choice. No one doubts Belichick’s football acumen, but first, he’s 73, which might have something to do with why he had trouble finding a job in the NFL and second is...well, the second is something that Cunningham may not have anticipated.
You probably know by now that Belichick’s girlfriend, for lack of a better term, is 24-year-old Jordon Hudson. And Hudson has become an issue.
When we first heard about their relationship, we knew that it would raise eyebrows among UNC’s fan base. The university is quite liberal, but the fan base, overall, is far more conservative. And that was just with the age difference.
After his interview on CBS Sunday, the controversy is closer to a crisis.
Belichik showed up in a tattered Navy sweatshirt (his father coached at Navy when he was a youth), which we’re guessing some of those older, more conservative UNC fans noted with displeasure. However, it was Hudson’s participation in the interview that really made things crazy.
When reporter Tony Dokoupil asked about his relationship with Hudson, she jumped in and said “we’re not talking about this.”
Belichick also struggled with a question about being let go by the Patriots. The owner, Robert Kraft, has said he fired Belichick. The coach contested this, saying that it was by “mutual decision.”
As Matt Hayes points out here in USA Today, his players read social media. And people are posting stuff like this on X:
TMZ is reporting that Hudson interrupted the interview “multiple" times and at one point stormed out. There are a lot more allegations in this article that you might want to check out.
And also according to TMZ, UNC is now getting concerned, with one source quoted as saying that there’s a “growing sense this could become a problem.”
At the time, it seemed like a smart hire: who knows more football than Belichick? Who better to run a football team when the college game is moving rapidly towards professionalism itself?
We weren't as sure about that. First, Cunningham replaced Mack Brown, a 73-year-old coach, with another 73-year-old coach. That didn’t make a lot of sense even if Belichick had the greatest run in NFL history. It’s a short-term hire at best.
And second, leaving Hudson aside, Belichick has never coached college football. Even with the move towards a more professional model, it’s not the NFL. For one thing, you have to deal with parents. For another, your players are basically 18-22 - just a few years younger than Hudson is.
As Hayes points out, they all read social media. And as he might have pointed out as well, college football players are often arrogant about women and tend to treat them as a commodity. If you don’t think that’s a potential problem when the coach is 73 and his girlfriend is 24, better think again.
Our hunch is that Hayes is exactly right: North Carolina has set a train wreck into motion. We’re not sure what exactly will cause that wreck, but it does seem inevitable. And if it’s bad enough, one of the casualties is going to be Cunningham himself.