Last year, when North Carolina coach Bill Belichick was selling a book, he conducted a very truncated media tour. This week alone, without anything specific to sell, Belichick has made a pair of lengthy podcast appearances.
It started with Pardon My Take, and it continued with Fox News Media’s Hang Out with Sean Hannity.
The PMT spot — which was very entertaining — focused only on football and none of the various non-football questions that could have been posed to Belichick. In contrast, Hannity raised the disastrous CBS interview from 2025. Which was a Sunday morning softball session that Belichick and his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, treated like chin music.
“By the way, like CBS, I was stunned at how horribly you were treated,” Hannity said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
“I couldn’t believe it, either,” Belichick said.
“I was stunned,” Hannity replied. “I hope you sue them.”
Based on his history, Belichick easily could have said, “I’m on to Cincinnati” (or whatever) as a way to avoid revisiting an old topic. He didn’t. He embraced the subject.
“As we’ve seen recently, there have been more editing problems, and they go back over a couple of years,” Belichick said, via Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing. “Multiple examples of editing and interview process and all that. You know, I thought that the interview I had with them was done very deceptively. I’ve asked for the transcript from them, and they won’t give it to me. They’ve done that with others. I’m not really sure what that policy is. . . .
“So I’m kind of confused about their — some of the things that they say they are, but I don’t really see them living up to the trust that they talk about.”
The worst moment in the CBS interview (beyond Belichick’s decision to wear an old football jersey with a hole in the neck) came when Tony Dokoupil asked Belichick how he met Hudson. She interrupted the interview and said, “We’re not talking about this.”
It became, at the time, one of the biggest stories in all of sports. And while Belichick has since complained about the way the interview was conducted and edited, it’s entirely possible that the full, unedited session would not make Belichick and/or Hudson look any better.
Quite possibly, it would make them look worse.
Given that Belichick is still willing to air his grievances about it, why shouldn’t CBS release the full interview? Start to finish. Let the viewers see it and hear it.
And if it takes a lawsuit to get the entire interview, here’s hoping Belichick files one. Our guess is that, in the end, the chances of Belichick suing CBS are roughly the same as Hudson following through on her vow to sue Pablo Torre.
Meanwhile, Belichick’s publisher should be keeping an eye on his willingness to do media appearances now, and it should be asking itself whether he fully complied with his contractual obligation (if any) to make a minimum number of media appearances a year ago to promote his book.
It’s possible that, of all potential lawsuits that could be filed by Hudson, Belichick, and/or Belichick’s publisher, a breach of contract suit from Simon & Schuster against Belichick would end up being the most viable.
Even if it definitely would not be the most entertaining.