New emails have offered a glimpse into the role that Bill Belichick’s girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, has played to date at UNC.
North Carolina hired the legendary NFL head coach, 72, on a five-year deal in December, citing a hope to evolve, compete and win in the ever-changing world of college sport.
The six-time Super Bowl winner with the New England Patriots will earn $10million per year under his deal, and despite the fact his team are still months away from taking to the field, Belichick has already attracted plenty of headlines.
Last month, it was revealed that he had requested girlfriend Hudson to be copied on emails sent to him.
While the plea was ridiculed by many fans after it went viral, NFL legend Shannon Sharpe defended the unusual request.
More emails have since come to light, and appear to reveal Belichick and Hudson’s biggest fear at UNC.
According to The Athletic, which obtained the correspondence through an open records request, Hudson wrote to the school’s media team to ‘raise awareness regarding a sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious, frequently occurring detail within media releases and social media posts.’
The issue? How Bill’s son, Steve Belichick, could be perceived.
Soon after the legendary NFL coach arrived in North Carolina, it was announced that Steve would take on the role of defensive coordinator.
“Though Steve Belichick is in fact Bill’s son, he should be depicted and represented as his own established, credible entity as opposed to an extension of Bill,” Hudson wrote on December 22.
“It can be easily misinterpreted that Steve is simply benefitting from nepotism but that is not the case. Steve was fortunate to have learned defensive football strategy from the ‘greatest defensive mind’ of all-time.
“He has earned his position due to his performance and output.”
Hudson went on to urge the school to avoid using images of Steve and Bill together to prevent ‘visual prompts’ that could fuel nepotism accusations.
She also said UNC should avoid referring to Steve as ‘Bill’s son’ and instead highlight his own accomplishments.
He spent 12 years with the Patriots before he was hired as the defensive coordinator for the University of Washington in 2024, and has since joined UNC.
“It is really worth emphasizing the point that Steve has the experience of being a COLLEGE defensive coordinator and will bring a plethora of knowledge to the coaching staff,” Hudson’s email read.
“I believe being strategic about the depiction of the Steve (sic) will prevent controversy and show upmost (sic) respect towards Steve’s career, validate Bill’s decision as a HC to hire Steve.”
Hudson received a response later that evening from the Tar Heels administrator in charge of marketing, athletic communications and creative services.
Robbi Pickeral Evans, senior associate athletic director for external affairs and strategic communications, wrote that the school hadn’t yet posted anything about Steve’s hire, but they would ‘certainly promote him as his own entity’ when they do.
The exchange came six days after Belichick had asked for Hudson to be copied on certain emails.
Other correspondence obtained by The Athletic focused on social media and apparent backlash against the couple.
Belichick and Hudson have previously drawn attention for their 48-year age gap, and appeared stunned when Snopp Dogg joked at their expense during the NFL Honors ceremony earlier this year.
“Is there anyone monitoring the UNC Football page for slanderous commentary and subsequently deleting it / blocking users that are harassing BB in the comments?” Hudson asked on February 13.
One day later, Belichick followed up.
“I cannot believe that UNC would support my being called a ‘predator,’” he wrote.
Neither provided more details, but according to The Athletic, Evans responded that the Tar Heels hid or erased a comment about their personal life and would continue to block, ban or hide similar remarks.
The school did not find a reference to Belichick as a predator, and Evans reportedly called the alleged comment ‘incredibly inappropriate’ in a response.
