Did you happen to catch “CBS News Sunday Morning” and its profile of former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who recently became the head football coach at the University of North Carolina? It was, uh, something.
Belichick is notorious for keeping the media at arm’s length, although he did show he has a personality over the past year in his many media appearances, including on ESPN’s Monday night “ManningCast” and in appearances on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
CBS News’ Tony Dokoupil conducted the interview, and it took an awkward turn when the topic of Belichick’s girlfriend came up. Belichick is 73 and his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, is 24. The relationship has become quite a talker, not only for the age difference, but because of Hudson’s reported heavy involvement in the North Carolina program, including media strategy.
Dokoupil first brought up Hudson about six minutes into the nearly eight-minute feature, so it’s not like it was the focus of the story. However, it was interesting to hear Dokoupil, in a voiceover, say, “Jordon was a constant presence during our interview.”
Dokoupil asked Belichick what it was like to have people constantly talking about his relationship, and he then followed up with what seemed like a fairly innocent, yet interesting question.
“How did you guys meet?” Dokoupil asked.
From off camera, Hudson said, “We’re not talking about this.”
Dokoupil said, “No?”
Hudson said, “No.”
Stunningly, Belichick just sat there, saying nothing.
Dokoupil said in a voiceover, “It’s a topic neither one of them is comfortable commenting on.”
It somehow then got even weirder.
Awful Announcing’s Drew Lerner wrote, “It’s about as contentious as the interview got, but provided a really telling look into the dynamic between Belichick and Hudson. The latter is clearly intimately involved in Belichick’s portrayal in the media, enough where she feels comfortable interrupting an interview to avoid what could potentially be an embarrassing line of questioning for the former New England Patriots coach.”
Lerner added, “For what it’s worth, the previous party line about how the couple met was that Belichick sat next to her on a plane.”
For what it’s worth, even Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy tweeted, “My Sunday morning routine is always coffee and CBS Sunday Morning. It’s a feel good show. The opposite of controversial. So imagine my surprise this morning when they had the most awkward Bill Belichick interview I’ve ever seen. Like I was squirming in my seat.”
Falling in the draft
The most interesting thing about the NFL Draft, which was held from Thursday through Saturday on ESPN/ABC and the NFL Network, wasn’t who was taken, but who went so long without being taken. University of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, son of Colorado coach and Hall of Fame player Deion Sanders, was projected to be a first-round draft pick. But, for reasons that still aren’t fully clear, Sanders' draft stock plummeted and he wasn’t picked until the Cleveland Browns took him in the fifth round — 144th overall.
The mystery surrounding Sanders was constantly talked about by ESPN, both in its actual draft broadcast and its other programming, such as “SportsCenter.” That’s not a criticism. It was the story of the draft, and ESPN’s focus was warranted.
But there’s more to this story. ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper, like most draft prognosticators, had Sanders going high in the draft. In fact, Kiper had him going fifth overall. And as time passed without Sanders being picked, Kiper grew more and more annoyed. At one point on Saturday, Kiper said on air, “The NFL has been clueless for 50 years when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks. Clueless. They have no idea what they’re doing. … There’s proof of that.”
It was all part of a tense exchange between Kiper and ESPN host Rece Davis and analyst Louis Riddick.
In a roundtable piece for The Athletic, sports media columnist Richard Deitsch said, “In Kiper’s case, it was the nexus of being invested in his analysis running into the reality of what was actually happening. The reality was that NFL Draft evaluators saw Sanders in a very different way than ESPN’s lead analyst did.”
In the same piece, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand said, “The draft is a TV show, and Kiper was the star. With ESPN, ABC, NFL Network, (Pat) McAfee and a million outlets covering the draft, the two biggest topics at its conclusion were — Sanders dropping and Kiper going nuts about it. For ESPN, it is ‘Mission Accomplished.’”
Marchand later added, “For people on TV, it is an attention business. Kiper was the star of the weekend. Maybe he will even end up being correct on Sanders. But, honestly, for his role, he already got an ‘A,’ because he was the biggest character on the show.”
Correction
In Friday’s newsletter, I had an item about President Donald Trump’s seeming obsession with former President Joe Biden. (Since being inaugurated on Jan. 20, Trump has spoken about Biden, his family or the Biden administration nearly 600 times in either public remarks or on social media.) In my item, I goofed when I said Trump continues to talk about Biden constantly, even though he defeated Biden in last November’s election. Obviously, he did not defeat Biden. Trump defeated Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris.
Media tidbits
- ABC News’ Terry Moran will interview President Donald Trump about his first 100 days in office. The interview will air Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern.
- On Sunday evening, CBS’s “60 Minutes” addressed the departure of executive producer Bill Owens, who resigned in protest last week. Correspondent Scott Pelley told viewers, “Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial — lately the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way, but our parent company Paramount is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he had lost the independence that honest journalism requires.” Pelley added, “No one here is happy about it, but in resigning, Bill proved one thing: He was the right person to lead ‘60 Minutes’ all along.”
- I’ll be recording a new episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast” today with a superb guest you’ll want to hear from. That episode will be released a week from today. Meanwhile, be sure to check out the most recent episode when my guest was The New York Times’ Adam Entous. We discussed his yearlong investigation of the U.S’s real involvement in the war in Ukraine.
- Katie Sanders, editor-in-chief of PolitiFact at the Poynter Institute, with “Pope Francis called for truth. The internet answered with deepfakes.”
- Politico’s Adam Wren with a lengthy profile of the White House press secretary: “The Political Education of Karoline Leavitt.”
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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].
