Bill Belichick’s weekend interview with CBS was meant to catapult him back into public consciousness as the legendary football coach drops his memoir. The long-time signal-caller for the New England Patriots certainly earned headlines for his stop, but not in the way that he had hoped.
The segment went viral thanks to Jordon Hudson, Belichick’s much-younger girlfriend. The 24-year-old interjected from off-screen during a part of the interview and shut down questions about how they met.
On Wednesday, Belichick shared a lengthy statement claiming the segment was deceptively edited to create a “false narrative” and that Hudson was merely repeating terms that were set before for the interview.
“Prior to this interview, I clearly communicated with my publicist at Simon & Schuster that any promotional interviews I participated in would agree to focus solely on the contents of the book,” Belichick said. “Unfortunately, that expectation was not honored during the interview.”
The eight-time Super Bowl winner said he was “surprised when unrelated topics were introduced” and that interviewer Tony Dokoupil brought his relationship with Hudson up “several times” before she intervened.
“She was not deflecting any specific question or topic but simply doing her job to ensure the interview stayed on track,” he said. “Some of the clips make it appear as though we were avoiding the question of how we met, but we have been open about the fact that Jordon and I met on a flight to Palm Beach in 2021.”
The network responded, saying that it never agreed to a list of taboo subjects prior to the interview.
“When we agreed to speak with Mr. Belichick, it was for a wide-ranging interview. There were no preconditions or limitations to this conversation,” the network shared. “There were no preconditions or limitations to this conversation.”
Belichick’s accusation of deceptive editing comes months after Donald Trump sued the network for its handling of an interview on “60 Minutes” with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump accused the network of engaging in “election interference” by editing the segment. CBS stood by its reporting and released all the footage it shot on the day of the Harris interview. However, the network’s parent company, Paramount, has been looking to settle with the president, as it hopes to stay in his good graces.