Ever since Bill Belichick appeared on that ‘CBS Sunday Morning interview,’ it has been an endless charade of desperate attempts at damage control. Thanks to Pablo Torre’s podcast, which cited 11 higher-order sources claiming Belichick’s girlfriend Jordon Hudson was banned from entering UNC’s football facility. Shortly after, a smartly-worded statement from an athletic department spokesperson was released that said, “While Jordon Hudson is not an employee at the University or Carolina Athletics, she is welcome to the Carolina Football facilities.” You’d think that would be the last you’d hear about it, but Torre was quick to come back again.

Torre stood by his reporting, and throwing more caution to the air, he criticized the program for its lack of transparency despite filing “dozens of FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests.” He added, “UNC can now choose to describe or change its position on Jordon Hudson’s involvement, however it wishes, following the publication of our episode.” In response, Belichick insisted, “It’s a personal relationship, and she doesn’t have anything to do with football.” But it did little to calm the PR nightmare that this has become. So, the next thing UNC does is hire former Chicago Bears PR executive Brandon Faber. Although he will work directly for UNC, let’s not lose sight of the fact that he is still very much a Belichick hire. His title is yet to be determined, and his deal is reportedly in the final stages.

It’s clear UNC is looking for a rebrand, and per reporter Albert Breer, “[Belichick] is aware of what’s being said, and how he’s being perceived, and that, at this point, he’s far from having it all figured out.” At such a time, with hopes that it will do some good, the head coach sat with Michael Strahan, this time on the May 16th episode of Good Morning America. Although the objective of the program was to promote his book, it was certain that the ‘Jordon Hudson’ question would come around sooner rather than later. And when that moment came, Belichick was ready with his perfect answer, and this time, with no one to interrupt him either.

“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 really what I want to do. You know, I acknowledged her in the book. She was very helpful on that with the tribute pages and also gave a perspective of the book from a kind of business side.” So this time, the head coach finally talked about the book and even clarified the whole controversy regarding his girlfriend. That’s a win-win situation, right?

Well, in this interview, the head coach looked to take that ‘control’ back that many people alleged was taken by Jordon. The answers were precise and accurate, and Belichick had that look that we saw when he gave those press conferences in the NFL. So, when Michael next asked about what Jordon meant to him, for a moment it looked like the head coach was about to blurt out, “We’re on to Cincinnati”. Thankfully, he didn’t and simply said assertively, “I’m not talking about personal relationships, Michael. You know that”. Michael’s only option was then to change the topic, and he did the same by saying, “I know that, coach”. But Belichick did open up later about his dad and his UNC connection.

Bill Belichick opens up on his father’s UNC connection and influence on him

Bill Belichick’s dad, Steve Belichick, was a legend in his own right. He coached in the days when college football was completely different from what it is now. For starters, teams in those days in the 40s and 50s played with a single platoon system as two-way players. The protection gear that we see today was rudimentary, and the rules were vastly different. Belichick calls it “the days where you had two-way players, so you only had half as much practice time”. So, in those rigors, Belichick learned and grew up with his father, Steve.

Steve Belichick, after a brief football career, came to Hiram as the head coach in 1946 and later went to UNC for three years, starting from 1949. Belichick reminisced about the times and the footballing figures at the time he learned from, including his father.

“I grew up around college football at the Naval Academy and some of the great teams there, especially the ’63 team, ’60 team.  Great teams and great players there. Roger Staubach, Tom Lynch, you know, Pat Donnelly and those guys, and they were great leaders, great people, and great inspirations to me.  Learned a lot from watching them. And so, I’ve always kind of tried to make my team look like those teams, the kind of teamwork, camaraderie, communication, toughness, and resilience that those guys had.”

Michael then asked the head coach about the feeling to follow in his father’s legacy, and coaching UNC like his father, to which the head coach said, ” It feels great. It really feels great… I learned a lot there, and so it’s great to be in college working with young kids.” Well, Belichick’s father coached the Navy football team from 1956 to 1989, for a significant part of his career. So it’s evident that the head coach learned from the likes of Staubach, the two-time Super Bowl champion. And now we also know it was the reason why the head coach wore that ‘Navy’ T-shirt in the CBS interview.