I tried. I really did. I swear.
I received the email from TheAthletic.com, touting the quotes from Jordon Hudson to one of the podcasts it now licenses, The Sports Gossip Show. I skimmed the article. I decided not to take the bait.
More and more articles emerged regarding Hudson’s cold-call to the podcast’s hosts, and regarding their ensuing conversations with her. I remained stubborn. Do not post.
And now, with the only Sunday afternoon preseason game into the second half, I need to mention it here.
As summarized by Eileen Reslin of the New York Post, Hudson compares herself to the longtime publicist for Taylor Swift.
“I love that you said that I’m like Bill [Belichick’s] Tree Paine because I am,” Hudson told Charlotte Wilder of The Sports Gossip Show.
“Everybody loved Bill’s media presence before they found out that I was behind it,” Hudson added.
The situation first became an issue after the deal to make Belichick’s North Carolina program the centerpiece of the offseason edition of Hard Knocks imploded, reportedly due to demands Hudson had made. It reached critical mass when a book-tour softball interview on CBS was sidetracked by Hudson’s reportedly repeated interruptions, culminating in her instruction to Belichick to not answer the hard-hitting question of how the couple met.
Belichick has tried to downplay Hudson’s connection to UNC football, publicly-released emails notwithstanding. A finger of blame has been pointed in multiple directions, from the existing North Carolina P.R. apparatus when he arrived in Chapel Hill to the P.R. representative assigned by the publisher to his book.
So there it is. I finally gave in.
And now, after this story is posted on Twitter and someone with a bunch of numbers in his handle criticizes me for doing it, she can repost the reply on her own account. Like she did last weekend, after we dared to point out the joke made by Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer during the speech she gave after receiving the 2025 Bill Nunn Memorial Award on Hall of Fame weekend.
Apparently, Hudson believes that one of the basic plays from the Tree Paine P.R. playbook.
As to Belichick, it’s just another example of him now embracing the kind of stuff that, during his time with the Patriots he both aggressively avoided for himself and relentlessly mocked from others.
