Even the torrent of news that flows from the White House every day was unable to keep Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson out of sight and out of mind for those of us who would rather not think of them.
That’s pretty much all of America, not just the New England Patriots fans still smarting from the loss of the greatest coach and greatest quarterback to ever have a locker at Gillette Stadium.
Any May-December relationship brings some degree of discomfort that friends and relatives of the couple have to walk gingerly around, especially if Mr. December has grown children older than Miss May, as Belichick, 73, does.
There are, of course, many instances in which the awkwardness subsides over time — think, for instance, of the late South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond’s marriage to a 22-year-old beauty queen when he was 66. They went on to have four children together and were together for 22 years before separating.
But that was before social media gave them the opportunity to, say, pose together on a beach dressed as a fisherman and a mermaid. Let’s just say that today, we, the American people, are swimming in a sea of cringe, and it’s unclear how much ickier things can get.
The latest episode in the Belichick/Hudson soap opera is the CBS interview in which Hudson tersely said, “We’re not talking about that” when Tony Dokoupil asked how the couple met. Although the story had already been told, the optics of this exchange made it viral, even becoming a topic on cable shows that usually focus on politics, like “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Fox.
It has become a Godzilla of a story, rampaging through news feeds, with some people calling for the full transcript of the interview to be released. A columnist for The Washington Post weighed in with a piece headlined “Bill Belichick and Jordan Hudson’s relationship is everyone’s business now.”
Belichick and Hudson attempted damage control by insisting that the interview was only supposed to cover the coach’s new book, in which he describes 24-year-old Hudson as his “idea mill and creative muse.” Hudson, Belichick said in a statement released Wednesday by the University of North Carolina, “stepped in to reiterate that point to help refocus the discussion.” (CBS has issued a statement saying that was never the agreement.)
During the interview, Belichick also said, “I’ve never been too worried about what everyone else thinks, just trying to do what I feel like is best for me, and what’s right.”
There’s an argument to be made that Belichick is not doing “what’s right” by exposing a young woman to the sort of scrutiny that Hudson is under, even though she seems to be enjoying it. What seems right at age 24 often does not seem right a decade or two later, as any mature person will tell you.
There’s also an argument to be made that Belichick’s right to an unremarked-upon personal life ended long ago, and that his fame carries with it a measure of responsibility, and yes, a demand for some degree of decorum and dignity.
Which is why ordinary Americans cringe as we learn of yet another out-of-wedlock child for Elon Musk, or another video of Britney Spears prancing about in lingerie on social media.
Being human, heroes fail to act heroically all the time, and Americans are exceptionally forgiving, as Tiger Woods and countless others can attest. We are more forgiving, of course, when people are winning, and the prospect of Bill Belichick winning at the University of North Carolina is surely why the school is averting its eyes from this spectacle even as the rest of us can’t.
On its website, UNC shows a smiling Belichick in a suit and tie, uncharacteristic for a coach whose preferred attire is a ripped sweatshirt and whose demeanor is gruff on a good day. Of his personal life, the resume only mentions him being a father of three.
This is the Belichick that UNC hired, the one its young players are supposed to listen to, emulate and respect. The Belichick of Instagram may not get him fired, but when a legendary football coach is as much a staple of TMZ as he is The Athletic, the sea of cringe will not soon recede. Andy Reid has never looked so good.