Journalist Pablo Torre said the North Carolina football staff, including general manager Mike Lombardi, is “deeply concerned” about Bill Belichick’s 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson being anywhere near the athletic program.
During a Tuesday appearance on Bill Simmons’ podcast to squash their “big beef” over the Belichick-Hudson drama, Torre painted a bleak picture of how UNC brass is handling the couple’s relationship and the media attention that comes with it.
“What if I told you that [Belichick’s] inner circle of actual coaches on staff, including a certain Mike Lombardi, is deeply concerned about Jordon Hudson and her presence in the building?” said Torre, a former ESPN reporter who worked for the Worldwide Leader with Simmons in 2010.
Simmons, a die-hard Boston sports fan, then changed the subject.
Lombardi is a former employee of Simmons’s platform, “The Ringer.”
“Bill, surely you’ve communicated with Lombardi about this. So, what has he said?” Torre asked.
Simmons didn’t entertain the question.
Torre also told Simmons that Hudson attended a Patriots game and sat in Belichick’s seats at Gillette Stadium in November 2021 — the same year the couple said they met on a plane to from New York to Palm Beach.
Last month, Torre reported that Hudson was banned from the UNC athletics facility amid the fallout from Belichick’s disastrous “CBS Sunday Morning” interview, which aired April 27 and showed Hudson stopping him from answering a question about how the couple met.
Torre said he spoke with 11 people who had dealt directly with Hudson as part of his investigation, which alleged she was trying to control Belichick’s career to further her own — and that Belichick’s family is concerned and digging into Hudson.
Belichick and UNC later issued a statement and specifically denied Torre’s claim that higher-ups at UNC banned Hudson from the team’s facility.
Torre and Simmons chatted Tuesday following barbs being traded over Torre’s deep dives into the Belichick-Hudson saga.
Simmons’ issue was that Torre was doing investigative journalism about a “stupid” subject matter.
“Jordon Hudson retweeted about me, saying I need a new hobby — she’s not wrong,” Torre said.
The news of Belichick and Hudson’s relationship broke last June — five months after his split with the Patriots in January after 24 years and six Super Bowl titles.
Belichick explained in a series of recent interviews that Hudson helps run his professional opportunities outside of UNC football.