Throughout the offseason, reports swirled about Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson’s relationship. The chatter grew louder in light of a CBS News interview, which appeared to show Hudson interrupting, and more came from there.
However, North Carolina general manager Michael Lombardi called it “just noise” during an appearance on ESPN Radio’s Marty & McGee on Saturday. He also pointed out other reports about Belichick, including some as his buyout dropped to $1 million, ahead of his first season as the Tar Heels’ head coach.
Lombardi said the UNC program wasn’t going to be “distracted” by the reports, some of which said Hudson played a role in the failed Hard Knocks deal and was banned from the team facility. He added his focus, as well as Belichick’s, is on getting ready for the 2025 season.
“I mean, look, let’s face it,” Lombardi said, via Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. “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. And the noise out there comes from a direction of people trying to be disruptive within our program.
“We’re not going to allow it. We’re not going to acknowledge it. We’re gonna move on. And look, let’s face it, the proof’s in the pudding. We’re having a tremendous recruiting class. We had a tremendous portal, and we’re going to continue to get better every day.”
The CBS This Morning interview was where the reporting around Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson ramped up. Amid the fallout, North Carolina hired former Chicago Bears vice president of communications Brandon Faber to work with Belichick and the football program. However, Michael Lombardi said the North Carolina program didn’t have a reason to “circle the wagons” in the aftermath. That, he said, should be for the football field.
“We had no reason to circle wagons,” Lombardi said. “Everybody looked at each other and was like in complete amazement. I mean, so, we didn’t have any reason to circle the wagons. The reason we had was to focus on what we’re going to do, as Bill said in a lot of the interviews — and I don’t want to speak for Coach Belichick — but he said, ‘Look, Jordon does stuff in his business outside of North Carolina football, not here.’ I mean, it’s just completely a story that was generated from — basically, made up. I mean, it’s a tremendous, you know, you could be a great novelist, some of the people that report this stuff.
“So we had no, there’s no reason to circle any wagons. 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 competition. This is just noise.”
