Bill Belichick Makes Notable Change For Latest Book Interview

Bill Belichick continued his book tour Friday.

Following the disaster of a CBS interview, Belichick returned to the spotlight in a “Good Morning America” appearance with Michael Strahan.

The former New England Patriots head coach cleaned things up when he wore a suit and tie, and his relationship with Strahan helped create a smooth start to the interview. Belichick spoke briefly about a Tom Brady story in “The Art of Winning” before the “GMA” host asked the 73-year-old about how things changed after his Patriots tenure.

“Again, for me, it’s all about learning,” Belichick told Strahan. “I learn every day. I’ve learned so much being in the college environment. Whether it be recruiting, the college game, the rules, the hashmarks, some strategy and putting a team together. I’ve learned a lot. I learn every day. I’ve got a great staff. Michael Lombardi’s done a great job for me in terms of putting the personnel side of it together and having a shared vision, kind of like what we had in the NFL. We have a coach-general manager model, and that’s been great, as well, to kind of work with him and go through the process of reacclimating. Football is still football, but there’s still some differences. It’ll be interesting to see how the whole house settlement comes out with the roster size and compensation for the players, NIL and all that and trying to maximize the financial compensation for the players that they deserve. At the same time, maintaining the competitive balance for your team compared to the salary cap in the NFL.”

Strahan disclosed that Belichick’s girlfriend Jordon Hudson wasn’t on the “GMA” set, but that didn’t stop the Super Bowl XLII champion from asking about what she meant to the North Carolina head coach.

“She’s been terrific through the whole process, and she’s been very helpful to me,” Belichick said. “She does the business things that don’t relate to North Carolina that come up in my life, so I can concentrate on football, and that’s what I really want to do. I acknowledged her in the book. She was very helpful in that with the tribute pages and also giving a perspective from kind of the business side. Sometimes I get a little football technical, and she did a good job keeping me on balance there.”

It seems like Belichick’s new public relations team did well to produce better answers.

There seemed to be a hint of tension when Strahan tried to press on about Hudson and Belichick’s personal life. The eight-time Super Bowl champion told Strahan he didn’t want to talk about his personal life. The 53-year-old did well to quickly pivot and ask Belichick if he was happy and how everyone was happy if he was.

Obviously, a 10-minute segment on a morning show is different than what was reportedly meant to be a two-part feature. But Belichick did well Friday to avoid disaster compared to his CBS interview.