Who’s Calling the Plays? Belichick’s CBS News Interview
Watching the Super Bowl-winning coach in action provides lessons in public relations
With her personal and professional interests at stake, Jordon Hudson came off the sidelines of a CBS News interview of Bill Belichick about his football book to shut down questions about their relationship.
The NFL championship winning coach, 73, and Hudson, 24, who has a role in his business operations, hadn’t publicly commented about their relationship, which has been the subject of news coverage and social media speculation for nearly a year.
Belichick won a record six Super Bowls during 24 years with the New England Patriots. But after several losing seasons he was fired in January 2024. He returned to coaching five months ago at the college level at the University of North Carolina.
Hudson acted as Belichick’s PR coach during the recording of the interview for “Sunday Morning,” which was broadcast April 27, 2025. The session may have taught her a lesson: If a coach leaves the sidelines and becomes part of the action, it seldom goes well.
That’s one of four public relations tips to be drawn from the interview. Before we get to those, let’s look at the interview.
The interview
Belichick won a record six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, when he was known for not divulging any information during press conferences and giving one-word answers to reporters’ questions.
In the interview, he wanted to promote, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football,” in which he calls Hudson his “idea mill and creative muse.” In September, Hudson began posting pictures of her and the coach on social media.
The first six minutes of the eight-minute segment were routine. Then Sunday Morning co-host Tony Dokoupil said Hudson was a “constant presence” during the interview. She interrupted several times, including while the camera was running and Dokoupil asked Belichick how they met.
“We’re not talking about this,” she said.
“No?” said Dokoupil, perhaps feigning surprise.
“No,” she said, leading to one of several awkward pauses during the interview.
Here was a hard-nosed football coach seemingly taking direction from a romantic partner who was born after he started coaching the Patriots.
Belichick later said the interview lasted 35 minutes. While their relationship wasn’t a large part of Dokoupil’s report, Hudson’s interruption dominated the immediate news coverage.
Here are four takeaways for PR professionals:
No. 1: It’s impolite to interrupt. Public relations pros who interject during interviews do so at the discretion (or mercy) of the reporter, who may decide the PR person is part of the story.
Back-seat driving by a PR person undercuts the credibility of the client, a sign that the advisor doesn’t trust the client.
If reporters think the PR person is helping them, they may not think twice about the interruption. But cutting off questioning is guaranteed to be part of the story.
Especially when the camera or recorder is running, the PR person must keep quiet, trusting that the client has been prepared.
No. 2: Preparation is everything. For a coach who frequently preaches the importance of preparation to his players, Belichick wasn’t ready for another question he should have expected. In a book that the publisher says is “bursting with unforgettable inside stories,” Dokoupil asked why he didn’t mention Patriots owner Robert Kraft, with whom he worked closely.
The book is “about my life lessons in football, and it’s really more about the ones I experienced directly,” he said.
Belichick declined to say if he was treated with respect by Kraft when he was let go, insisting that his departure was a “mutual decision,” not a firing as Kraft said.
No. 3: Set expectations. It might take work to get Belichick to open up a little about his relationship with Hudson, although as a football broadcaster this past season he showed a lively side to his dour personality. It would likely take a lot more prep work for Belichick to talk about Kraft without anger getting the better of him.
Belichick and Hudson needed someone to tell them what to expect in the interview. Belichick is a celebrity and the news media has a prurient interest in his relationship with Hudson.
A senior PR exec once told me that when talking to clients, he doesn’t defend the media because that just gets them angry. But he does explain the media to them.
No. 4: Stop digging. People caught in media coverage (and their PR people) often forget a saying incorrectly attributed to Will Rogers: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
On April 29, two days after the CBS report was aired, Hudson and Belichick gave the news coverage new fuel. She posted on social media an April 10 email from Belichick to his publisher and agent expressing concerns about the promotion of the book.
“Full statement to be released later today,” she added.
That night, Belichick’s book agent issued a statement, complaining that Dokoupil’s report “veered into a discussion of Bill’s personal life and away from the subject of his book, resulting in a raft of hostile social media posts about his personal life.”
The next day, not to be outdone, Belichick issued a statement through the University of North Carolina press office.
“I clearly communicated with my publicist at Simon and Schuster that any promotion interviews I participated in would agree to focus solely on the contents of the book,” he said. “Unfortunately, that expectation was not honored during the interview.”
CBS used “selectively edited clips … to suggest a false narrative ― that Jordon was attempting to control the conversation ― which is simply not true,” he said.
CBS News quickly contradicted Belichick, saying it agreed to a “wide-ranging interview” without any limitations.
News coverage of the Belichick-Hudson relationship is likely to continue, with NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley expressing concern for his friend.
Meanwhile, Belichick’s book, scheduled to be released May 6, includes a chapter on leadership communication. Maybe the paperback edition will include an epilogue.
Tom Corfman is a football fan and senior consultant with Ragan Consulting Group, which conducts media training and external communications assessments and consulting.
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