The North Carolina Tar Heels hired Bill Belichick, arguably the greatest NFL head coach of all time, to lead them from obscurity to national relevance. Belichick began taking care of everything, from recruitment to transfer portal swoops, to make it happen. But Tar Heels didn’t have to wait for the regular season for Belichick to deliver those national headlines; it came earlier than expected, courtesy of the controversy that followed his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson.

The couple regularly made headlines and sparked speculation regarding their nearly 50-year age gap, whether at the American Museum of Natural History Gala or Hudson’s Instagram posts. But these were just tabloid gossip; no one took them seriously, since what mattered was on-field results, and people trusted Belichick to do that. However, these tabloid gossips quickly turned into serious accusations after that infamous CBS interview, where Hudson interrupted Belichick. What followed was extensive media coverage of the entire issue, and more details emerged.

Several reports indicated that Hudson was influencing day-to-day activities at UNC, and an email leak also didn’t help. The reported leak within UNC, where it was alleged that Belichick was instructing his staff to include Hudson in every communication. Then came other reports, such as those from Pablo Torre, who cited nine sources within the UNC and alleged that Hudson was banned from the program. The controversy started boiling over, and finally Belichick cleared the air in ‘The Pivot’ podcast, clarifying that Jordon Hudson handled just the “business side of things” for him and wasn’t in any way involved with UNC. But even after the clarification, the controversy hasn’t died down.

Recently, renowned journalist Mike Florio published a piece criticizing UNC’s general manager, Michael Lombardi, who was asked about the Jordan controversy in an interview. Michael Lombardi termed the whole controversy just “noise” and refused to pay heed to it. “Look, when we play Clemson, we’re gonna have to circle the wagons. But we play TCU on the opening game, we’re going to have to circle the wagons. Those are the competition. This is just noise,” said Michael Lombardi. Mike Florio, in turn, berated the stance in the piece and accused Lombardi of “attacking the messenger,” terming the reports as credible truths. However, Jordon took note of all this.

ProFootballTalk’s official X account posted Mike Florio’s article, and a user criticized the organization for the reporting. “Does Mike Florio and @ProFootballTalk get paid for being a tiny-brained gossip w—e as to Bill Belichick’s personal life, or just have a sick obsession?” The message was clear. Fans have had enough of the bitter narrative, and Jordon couldn’t agree more. She reposted the post. While she chose not to add any comments, her silence was loud.

But this isn’t the first time Hudson has done such a thing. Previously, Hudson had also responded to Pablo Torre’s reporting, accusing him of factual inaccuracies, slander, and defamation. Although she later deleted her Instagram post, it sparked discussions about why the post was deleted. All in all, the controversy seems to be dying down for good, and with the regular season quite close, Belichick’s focus will surely be on the fall camp now.

Michael Lombardi hits out at reports in the media

Michael Lombardi is known for his open stance on various issues. For example, earlier too, when ProFootballTalk reported on X that Belichick’s UNC staff was slow in taking its full shape, the UNC GM came out refuting the claim. The GM claimed in his reply to the post that UNC isn’t slow but “diligent” and also pointed to the fact that he hired “three people on Sunday,” claiming the report to be “completely fabricated.” Now, he opened up on Belichick and Jordon Hudson’s off-field controversy.

“One report had [Belichick] wasn’t supposed to be here [at] the beginning of June. And the next report came out that he was gonna go back to the NFL. I mean, it’s all just a bunch of stuff being thrown up against the wall. My job is to focus on North Carolina football, and Bill’s job is to focus on North Carolina football, and that’s what he has done, and that’s what I’ve done. And we’re gonna continue to do that,” said Michael Lombardi.

One thing is crystal clear from this statement: UNC and the staff are fully behind Belichick for now. As for that $1 million claim? It was reported that Belichick’s buyout has been reduced from $10 million to $1 million in June, and many reports indicated that he could leave UNC midway with the sum not ‘a big deal’ for him. However, now that Lombrardi has denied those reports, the UNC fans can be stress-free for now. That said, Mike Florio did say in his piece that, “If the Bucs or maybe even the Dolphins come calling after the 2025 season, no amount of tar on the heels would keep Belichick in Chapel Hill.”