Jordon Hudson's FOIA crusade adds more chaos to UNC's Bill Belichick mess
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
On one hand, there’s is Jordon Hudson. The adult cheerleader, Bill Belichick’s muse, or whatever you want to call her, firing off Freedom of Information Act requests to the employer of her boyfriend/artist/biggest fan.
Or whatever we’re calling Beli these days.
Then there’s the 33rd Team, Belichick’s master plan to transition North Carolina from fall Saturdays afterthought, to the top of the college football mountain.
Now I may be oversimplifying things here, but one is a car wreck waiting to happen. And the other is along for the ride.
Does it really matter who’s who?
Because with each passing week, and each self-inflicted wound, North Carolina gets a more clear-eyed view at what the hell did we do?
The Assembly reported late last week that Hudson is FOIA-ing North Carolina for a broad range of documents detailing any information about podcaster Pablo Torre’s report last fall she had been banned from the North Carolina football facility.
If you’re wondering what The Assembly is, think Vanity Fair of the South. You know, politics, power, popular culture.
OK, caught up now? Good, because as they say in the syrupy sweet small towns all over Carolina, we’ve just begun unfolding this thing.
Hudson isn’t happy Torre reported in 2025 she was banned, and has threatened to sue. Torre reported Michael Lombardi, Belichick’s general manager and sidekick with The 33rd Team, told multiple people Hudson wasn’t allowed in the football building.
So last month on graduation day — kind of a big deal at the Harvard of the South — Hudson fired off an email to Dean Stoyer, vice chancellor for communications and marketing at North Carolina. In the email — which began, “Happy BANniversary!” — she FOIA’d a treasure trove of information.
Hudson wants call logs and voicemails, text messages, iMessages, WhatsApp messages, documents, Asana Memos, Instagram direct messages, Twitter (X) messages, Zoom meetings (scheduled, fulfilled, cancelled) and emails (including all attachments) between January 29, 2025 and May 9, 2026 that include the words “banned” or “ban.” Among other things.
She ain’t happy, folks. And apparently, winning trophies at adult cheerleading while Beli smiles and approves isn’t the soothing salve it should be.
Meanwhile, there is Belichick — doing the best he can to compete with the Ohio States and Georgias of the world while trying to develop the next Indiana. Let’s just say his first attempt wasn’t exactly the big party UNC chancellor Lee Roberts thought it would be when he kneecapped athletic director Bubba Cunningham (who wanted to hire Matt Campbell), and threw tens of millions at Belichick and his crew.
A crew we now know includes his muse — Beli’s words, not mine — Hudson, and everything that comes with her.
It’s bad enough Belichick and Lombardi whiffed in Year 1, bad enough they ran off a majority of the roster and had 70 new players in 2025, and didn’t have a legitimate quarterback. Bad enough they overstated the impact of their names, of Belichick’s six Super Bowl rings as coach of the NFL’s Patriots, as a lure in player procurement.
It’s so much worse that a man whose life has been all about ball, who desperately needs zero distractions while trying to figure out the transition from professional to college football — you go get the roster, the roster doesn’t come to you — is now dealing with his girlfriend warring with his bosses at North Carolina.
You better believe it’s a problem for the guy trying to turn around a program and set it up for his son, Steve, to take over. Much less get a third season at UNC.
Hudson has every right to FOIA North Carolina, especially if she truly is in the process of discovery in an attempt to sue Torre and any other connective tissue. Who knows what she’ll get in those requests, but it will not end well if she finds a smoking gun — or what she perceives as one.
The more she digs, the more Belichick’s relationship with North Carolina will deteriorate. The more it deteriorates, the more it puts Roberts — hired as an interim chancellor in January 2024 and officially appointed in August of 2024 — in a difficult spot.
Does he want his tenure at North Carolina tied to the Belichick hire — and everything that comes with it — or does he cut bait and declare he was willing to do anything and everything to keep UNC relevant in an ever-changing college football landscape? And it just didn’t work.
Belichick is in the middle of it all, trying to get a team of 61 new players — 41 high school recruits, 20 players from the transfer portal — to win games.
And avoid the next car wreck.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him at @MattHayesCFB.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jordon Hudson UNC records request adds more problems for Bill Belichick
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos