Emails provide glimpse into how Bill Belichick handled fallout from Jordon Hudson's viral moment in CBS interview
Bill Belichick has said that Jordon Hudson was "simply doing her job" when she chimed in during his interview with "CBS Sunday Morning." (Photo by)
Bill Belichick told North Carolina 'I don't want to make a wrong move here' when responding to the aftermath of his book interview with 'CBS Sunday Morning."
The late-April interview went viral for the way that Belichick's girlfriend Jordon Hudson chimed in when the 73-year-old coach was asked a question about how the two met. Instead of Belichick answering — and likely deflecting — the innocuous question from interviewer, the 24-year-old Hudson curtly said the topic was off-limits.
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That moment thrust the relationship between the two into an even bigger spotlight and led to Belichick releasing a statement saying that Hudson had no direct involvement with North Carolina football and that he had a 'personal and professional' relationship with her.
In communications between Belichick and employees at North Carolina obtained by WRAL, the coach wanted advice on his post-interview statement and said that Hudson was at the interview because no PR representative from his publisher Simon & Schuster was there.
From WRAL:
'Jordon and I have both a personal & professional relationship,' Belchick wrote in the email. 'This is not a secret. Jordon assists me with my personal media, which is why I asked UNC to forward media requests (E.G. CBS 60 Minutes) to her. Jordon has zero involvement in the UNC football program, beyond the degree that my personal media intersects with it.'
CBS wanted to do the interview in Chapel Hill, Belichick wrote in an email, 'which I rejected because UNC was not part of the book.' The interview took place in Annapolis, Maryland, at the site of Belichick's former high school. Belichick wore a tattered U.S. Naval Academy sweatshirt during the interview. His father coached at Navy for decades.
'Jordon was present at the CBS interview because David Kass, the Simon & Schuster publicist, was not there,' Belichick wrote, referring to the publisher of his book. 'I included Jordon in the book acknowledgments because she was a creative contributor to the book, including having the idea for formatting the 4 special pages in the book.'
Belichick also claimed that CBS 'secretly' had a camera trained on Hudson during the interview. In an email, Belichick said that Hudson had asked where she could sit off camera and that 'secretly, CBS had a camera focused on Jordon where lead producer Gabe [Falcon] instructed her to sit.'
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The coach also said that CBS wanted to do a walk-and-talk with Doukopil for the interview package but he declined after the question about Hudson. According to TMZ, the moment that CBS aired of Hudson was not the only time she chimed in during the interview.
In his statement, Belichick said that Hudson was 'simply doing her job' and said that he only wanted to focus on topics in his book during promotional interviews. He also added that he was 'surprised when unrelated topics were introduced.' Doukopil asked Belichick about New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and why he was omitted from the book.
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If the subject of Kraft was off-limits to Belichick because he wasn't in the book, the same can't be said for Hudson. She is mentioned in the book acknowledgments and Belichick told UNC staff that she was included 'because she was a creative contributor to the book, including having the idea for formatting the four special pages in the book.'
After Belichick's statement was released, CBS said there were no preconditions on the interview and that fact was 'confirmed repeatedly with his publisher before the interview took place and after it was completed.'
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