Nearly everyone in sports media has weighed in on Bill Belichick, his new younger girlfriend, and his move to college football. But this week saw a conversation about Belichick between Ryan Clark and Chris Long, two former NFL stars from the New England Patriots’ heyday who also worked with the coach in media.
Looking back on their season co-hosting Inside the NFL with Belichick last year, Clark and Long together gave a deep defense of him on Long’s Green Light podcast. In the two players’ minds, the media is ripping Belichick now out of longstanding resentments toward the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach. Because Belichick was too big to fail in New England, Clark and Long believe reporters are making up for lost time with overly personal and negative coverage.
“He was a lot cooler than at least I thought he would be. And (what) I do kinda hate is, when he moved out from us, go to North Carolina, everything’s been about his relationship,” Clark said. “I feel like some of the equity he built up doing TV, they took away from him.”
Long agreed, arguing that Belichick has done nothing wrong. Meanwhile, reporters like Mike Florio and Pablo Torre continue to dig into Belichick’s relationship with Jordon Hudson and his new job at North Carolina.
“A lot of people have been waiting to beat Bill up because he’s always had the upper hand with the media,” Long said.
“And he’s got a younger girlfriend. He is not the first older motherf*cker to like younger women. So I don’t know why he’s the one. I understand that there was some stuff at UNC … but let’s not act like they were not ready to do this, whether or not she was on the football field at spring practice.”
Clark believes that because Belichick was untouchable while coaching the Patriots and then was passed over by NFL owners in 2024, it has turned into open season for reporters and talking heads. They see it, according to Clark, as a “dent in the armor” that they can stab him through.
“They always had a disdain for him because they couldn’t get him to do what they wanted,” Clark said.
“And he was so good at his real job that he didn’t have to change that. He didn’t have to be any different for them, and they resented him. The thing that makes it bad is, it’s not about football. It’s not about him doing his job, but it is a little bit of a dent in the armor. So it’s like, ‘We’re going to attack him.'”
Both men know Belichick well, from all sides. Clark competed against the New England dynasty while playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2000s and 2010s. Long won a Super Bowl with the Patriots under Belichick in 2016, then helped Philadelphia beat New England the following season.
They also saw how Belichick navigated his season as an NFL analyst, with Clark remarking that the coach would often hold back on-air compared with how he would let it fly during production meetings. Already, Clark believes Belichick anticipated blowback from his friends in and around the NFL as well as the media. Add in Hudson, a young woman who prior to dating Belichick was not a public figure, and it is a recipe for a mess.
That doesn’t mean the story is as simple as reporters being villains and Belichick being a victim. Torre, for example, has reported on concerns among North Carolina staffers around Hudson’s involvement in the program as well as concerns among Belichick’s family over their relationship. Other reports show friction over the hiring of Belichick’s son as defensive coordinator and negotiations around Belichick being the heir to the program.
Reporters covering Belichick at North Carolina and his relationship will argue that it is in the public interest because Belichick is a public employee and an important figure in sports history. As former pro athletes with experience on Belichick’s side of things, Clark and Long understandably see that coverage as invasive.
For his part, Clark also has contributed to Belichick playing defense against that coverage. In a strangely edited interview on his Pivot podcast, Clark gave Belichick space to dispute media narratives about Hudson and the UNC program. After co-host Channing Crowder mentioned Hudson had a role in the setup of the interview, Crowder’s radio show deleted the clip from their audio feed.
It is up to journalists to respect Belichick and Hudson and honor boundaries, covering them only insofar as it matters to North Carolina taxpayers, Tar Heel fans, and the world of sports.