North Carolina Tar Heels football coach Bill Belichick tried to find the plot following a disastrous interview with CBS’s Tony Dokoupil in which his 24-year-old girlfriend was seen interrupting a question about where the two met.
It’s too early to tell if it worked. But Belichick ripped Dokoupil for not following the agreed-upon interview parameters on Wednesday in a face-saving effort.
“Unfortunately, that expectation was not honored during the interview. I was surprised when unrelated topics were introduced, and I repeatedly expressed to the reporter, Tony Dokoupil, and the producers that I preferred to keep the conversation centered on the book,” Belichick’s statement read. “After this occurred several times, Jordon, with whom I share both a personal and professional relationship, stepped in to reiterate that point to help refocus the discussion. She was not deflecting any specific question or topic, but simply doing her job to ensure the interview stayed on track. Some of the clips make it appear as though we were avoiding the question of how we met, but we have been open about the fact that Jordon and I met on a flight to Palm Beach in 2021.
“The final eight-minute segment does not reflect the productive 35-minute conversation we had, which covered a wide range of topics related to my career. Instead, it presents selectively edited clips and stills from just a few minutes of the interview to suggest a false narrative — that Jordon was attempting to control the conversation — which is simply not true.”
Belichick’s damage control can’t undo what the public saw.
USA Today’s Matt Hayes deemed Jordon Hudson’s behavior emasculating toward the 73-year-old.
“The meanest, toughest, gruffest coach in the history of coaches, the man who built an unassailable reputation as the hardest edge in the history of hard edges, was summarily emasculated on national television by his muse of 50 years the younger,” Hayes wrote.
The “Chapel Bill” era at UNC has taken more strange twists than most expected. Belichick’s interview with Dokoupil is the strangest yet.
With four months until the start of the Tar Heels’ 2025 season, that statement won’t age well.