UNC Football Players Say Coach Bill Belichick’s Relationship with Jordon Hudson Isn’t ‘a Distraction’

Bill Belichick's UNC Tar Heels players say his girlfriend Jordon Hudson isn't a distraction to the team, despite speculation around the couple's relationship.

Speaking to ESPN at ACC media day on Thursday, July 24, quarterback Gio Lopez and receiver Jordan Shipp said they fully support their head coach and have no issue with his personal relationship. “Social media can promote some narrative, but that was not a distraction to us at all,” Shipp said, adding, “There was never a problem, like people saying she was running practice."

The receiver said he's "never really seen" Hudson, 24, "in the building" at UNC. “That was never a problem.”

Lopez told the outlet the players see much more of Hudson online rather than at the campus. "I log on my phone and see something about Coach Belichick, so it is different, of course, but you'd never think that about him. He's a normal guy, a normal coach. That's how he carries himself. He's very personable, not worried about the spotlight. He just does his job."

"If anything, I feel like it's not a distraction because it's always good to have somebody in your corner in the building, just knowing they support us," Shipp said. "We support Coach B no matter what he's doing. We're behind him 100%. Whatever stuff is in the news drug on more than it really was. It was never a distraction, never an issue, never a problem."

Shipp also told ESPN that he used to spend time with the wife of UNC's former head coach Mack Brown. He said Brown's wife would eat breakfast with him at the team facility many days but Belichick noted that he doesn't think "Jordon has had lunch with anybody" at UNC.

Belichick called all of the discourse about his relationship "noise" on Thursday. "Sometimes it's noisy and sometimes it isn't. Sometimes with the Patriots it was noisy, too."

Hudson and Belichick have been linked since 2023 after the coach split with his ex-girlfriend Linda Holliday in 2022.

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The former Bridgewater State cheerleader made her red carpet debut with Belichick at a gala in New York City in December 2024 and joined him at the 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans.

After Hudson, acting as her boyfriend's publicist, interjected during Belichick's CBS interview in April and was seen on the field at a UNC practice, there was speculation that her involvement with the Tar Heels would become a distraction. There were briefly rumors that Hudson had been banned from the football facilities, but the university confirmed soon after that she was welcome on campus.

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