• by Barbara Lippert , Columnist, June 9, 2025

It’s a story as old as the sun: Very rich, powerful old guy hooks up with a very young, hot, ambitious woman.

I speak, of course, of legendary football coach Bill Belichick, 73, and his unexpected inamorata and Miss Maine-second-runner-up, Jordon Hudson, 24.

Normally, I’d say it’s not my business.

But Hudson has made it her business to run her notoriously tight-lipped and private beau’s business affairs, and her antics have made her the center of attention and aroused a steady stream of news stories. 

By the end of the May, even The New York Times gave the pair major real estate in a story recounting their most cringe-inducing public episodes, pegged to the slim news that a possible engagement was in the works.

Of course, Belichick, who wears eight Super Bowl rings, left the New England Patriots to become head football coach at the University of North Carolina in December 2024. In the course of his switch, and to publicize his new book, “The Art of Winning,” he did several TV interviews -- and Hudson aggressively asserted herself into those interviews in a way no PR director would.

For a guy who hates distractions, this was a shocker. They were both mocked in the process, but the fiercest criticism was saved for her.

So I decided to analyze two of BB's latest advertising ventures to see if their weird collaboration made any difference. 

The answer is yes, and mainly for the better.

Let’s first look at an ad for Underdog Fantasy, a sports betting app offering diverse contests across various disciplines.

Titled “We Only Need One Yard,” the spot shows various athletes and entertainers phoning Belichick, who is seen on his cell as he skims the pool at (his?) lavish beachside mansion “somewhere in Nantucket.”

The celebs making the calls include Tyrese Maxey of the Sixers, controversial golfer Bryson DeChambeau, and ‘90s rapper and outsized personality Cam’ron.

In quick cuts, each asks the legend BB for his inside take on football questions.

Belichick himself offers mostly gruff, one-word appraisals, like “yeah.”

But attempting to make a funny commercial showing him bestowing insider tips for sports betting, when BB himself has skirted the ethical line himself, is eyebrow-raising.

After all, he famously presided over “Deflategate” with Tom Brady and was also caught videotaping opponents’ secret signals.  

Speaking of secret videotapes, ironically, sports fans now have a bit too much insider info about the coach himself.

I refer to the infamous Ring video that recently surfaced online, showing  a bare-chested Belichick scurrying at 6 a.m. from the tiny back porch of a love shack while packing up his car.

Thanks to Pablo Torre, the former ESPN analyst, now a podcaster obsessed with this pair, we know that it was filmed from the back porch of an Airbnb that Hudson had rented.

Not surprisingly, there’s also a Hudson-based back story to “We Only Need One Yard.”  According to Torre, while Belichick was shooting the big-budget spot, Hudson insisted on getting in on the act, although she had already been denied a contract.

So she left the set while the production team was still filming, and returned, sporting a yellow polka-dot bikini and a big sun hat.

She suggested she could be shown sunning herself on a lounge nearby, trying to get Belichick's attention.

Then the story goes that to satisfy the bikinied business manager, the crew agreed to film her—with no film in the camera.

Still, a cut to that lounger certainly could not have made the spot worse.  It’s a fast-talking, chaotic, all-male spot. Including a few seconds of Hudson action would have made it much more memorable.

As it is, it ends with a close-up of Bill’s face, scrunched in the sun, as he croaks out “Still got it.”  That’s an eleven on the cringe-meter.

Around the same time, Hudson took the opportunity to insert herself into the much-heralded Dunkin’ spot that ran during Super Bowl 2025. 

If you recall, it reprised last year’s crowd-pleaser starring Ben Affleck and the iconic, orange-and-pink track-suited “Dun-kings” crew.  (Speaking of star-crossed relationships, that 2024 group included his then wife, Jennifer Lopez.)  

The 2025 version, “Java Jam,” showing the battle of coffeehouse brands as a battle of the bands, has a cast of thousands and is filled with inside jokes about the bland, standardized Starbucks brand.

This time Ben spars, in his thick Southie accent, with his brother Casey, who adds orange sunglasses and a fuzzy pink bucket hat to his Dun-Kingswear.

Ben, seated at a greeting table, tells off a fan demanding to see Matt Damon and Tom Brady from last year’s production. It’s him and Belichick this year, he alerts the nasty kid, then turns around to look behind him.

There, Belichick and Hudson stand in their Dunkings orange and pink power suits, although she customized her look with a blinged-out baseball cap. She also modified said track suit to show her midriff and belly button.

Hudson cheers Ben on, raising her arm energetically, while Belichick barely moves. “Little more spirit on the chahhge next time?” Ben asks.

Then the camera cuts to the love pair, and she’s looking up at him, batting her double eyelashes, as he looks at her, stony-faced.

Once again, Belichick’s moment in the spot would have been otherwise inert without Hudson.

Note to advertisers: She’s bringing main-character energy to everything she invades. The camera loves her, and I’m here for it.

Now let’s see what happens in Chapel Hill.