Did Hall of Fame voters overlook Belichick?
Current and former NFL players share their thoughts on whether voters made the wrong decision by not inducting Bill Belichick into the Hall of Fame.
On the other hand, we have Jordon Hudson. Adult cheerleader, Bill Belichick’s muse, or whatever you want to call her, file a Freedom of Information Act request against her boyfriend/artist/big fan’s employer.
Or what we call Berri these days.
And then there’s Belichick’s master plan to move No. 33 team North Carolina State from a fall Saturday afterthought to the top of the college football mountain.
I may be oversimplifying things here, but one of them is a car accident waiting to happen. And the other one runs together.
Does it really matter who is who?
Because with each week that passes and with each self-inflicted wound, North Carolina can see more clearly what we have done.
Late last week, the Legislature reported that Hudson had filed an FOIA with North Carolina for extensive documents detailing information related to podcaster Pablo Torre’s reported ban from North Carolina football facilities last fall.
If you’re wondering what The Assembly is, think of the Vanity Fair of the South. Politics, power, and popular culture.
Well, have you caught up? Good, because, as they say in syrupy little towns across the Carolinas, we’re only just beginning to uncover this.
Hudson is not pleased with Torre’s report that he has been suspended for 2025 and has threatened to sue. The Torre newspaper reported that Michael Lombardi, Belichick’s general manager and No. 33 team sidekick, told multiple sources that Hudson was not allowed in the football building.
So on Commencement Day last month, in a move of sorts for Harvard in the South, Hudson sent an email to Dean Stoyer, North Carolina’s vice president for communications and marketing. The email began, “Happy Ban Anniversary!” — She FOIAed a treasure trove of information.
Hudson is seeking call records and voicemails, text messages, iMessages, WhatsApp messages, documents, Asana notes, Instagram direct messages, Twitter(X) messages, Zoom meetings (scheduled, fulfilled, and canceled) and emails containing the words “banned” or “banned” (including any attachments) from January 29, 2025 to May 9, 2026. Among other things.
She’s not happy, guys. And apparently, winning trophies in adult cheerleading with Beli smiling and approving isn’t as sedative as it should be.
Meanwhile, Belichick is doing his best to compete with the Ohio States and Georgias of the world while trying to develop the next Indiana. His first attempt, let’s just say it wasn’t as big-party as UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts expected (he wanted to hire Matt Campbell), was when he forced athletic director Bubba Cunningham to his knees and threw tens of millions of dollars at Belichick and his crew.
The crew as we know it now includes Hudson, his muse, which is Belli’s word, not my muse, and everything that comes with her.
It’s bad enough that Belichick and Lombardi whiffed in Year 1, and it’s bad enough that they depleted most of the roster, had 70 new players in 2025, and didn’t have a legitimate quarterback. Worse, they overstated the influence of Belichick’s six Super Bowl appearances as coach of the NFL’s Patriots as a lure to acquire players.
It’s even worse for a man whose only life was ball, who desperately needs distractions while trying to make the transition from pro to college football — he goes to pick up rosters and they don’t come — and now he’s fighting with his girlfriend and boss at the University of North Carolina.
You better believe that’s a problem for a guy who’s trying to rebuild a program and set his son Steve to take over. Much less a third season at UNC.
Hudson has every right to FOIA North Carolina, especially if she is actually in the discovery process trying to sue Torre and other connective tissue. Who knows what she’ll get out of these requests, but if she finds conclusive evidence, or what she perceives to be, it won’t end well.
The more she investigates, the more Belichick’s relationship with North Carolina will deteriorate. The worse the situation, the more difficult the position will be for Roberts, who was hired as interim prime minister in January 2024 and formally appointed in August 2024.
Does he want to tie his tenure at the University of North Carolina to Belichick’s hiring and everything that comes with it, or does he take the bait and declare he’s going to do whatever it takes to keep UNC relevant in the ever-changing landscape of college football? And that didn’t work out.
Belichick is in the thick of it, trying to lead a team of 61 new players (41 high school recruits and 20 from the transfer portal) to winning games.
And avoid the next car accident.
Matt Hayes is a senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. please follow him @MattHayesCFB.
