Bill Belichick's girlfriend promises a "full statement" later today

When called out for making objectively bad decisions, the person who has made the objectively bad decisions can pursue one of two primary paths. One, start making better decisions. Two, double down on the bad decisions — and make more of them.

On that point, Bill Belichick’s girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, has responded to the criticism of her objectively bad decision to repeatedly interrupt Belichick’s softball interview with CBS Mornings by posting on Instagram an April 10 email written by Belichick regarding his forthcoming book, with this message: “Full statement to be released later today.”

The email went to various recipients (“David,” Hudson, “Jofie,” “Michael,” literary agent Richard Pine, and Berj Najarian, who is currently the chief of staff at Boston College). Belichick is possibly responding to the review of his book from Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, since the review was posted on April 10.

Here’s the full email:

“This is about what I expected from the media. We went through how important it was for me to put ‘I f***ed up’ in the book, and of course, that is the feature of this article — which is mostly about admitting mistakes and talking about a Super Bowl mistake. I am fine with putting mistakes in the book, but I am certainly not surprised that of 260+ pages, that is what they would highlight. And of course, the ‘I f***ed up’ is the click bait they used for the story. We’ll see what the title of the article is, which I noticed has been conveniently left out — do we have approval on that. I would approve this article if we can also approve the headline, which is actually more important than the article.

“We can expect that the ‘interviews’ and ‘podcasts’ that will supposedly drive the sales will also come from similar samples. These appearances will, no doubt, want to focus on whatever negatives they can extract from the book, and all the current events that don’t have anything to do with the book, but are most relevant to their ‘ratings’ and their agenda (which is not mine). That was evident when Aleirod dropped the story because we would not do current events at UNC. We’ll see how many people want to talk about the $5,000 bill for ‘spoiled milk,’ and other entertaining & business aspects of the book. I have no doubt the ‘I f***ked up’ will not be the main focus of Ray Dalio & Suzy Welch in my conversations with them.

“I will say again, that I want this book to be presented as a look at my professional life and how I did my job on the way up to, and as the leader of an organization that grew from a $500 m franchise to an $8 b organization that played in 10 and won 6 Super wis over 25 years. This book is about how I did my job, and lessons from my 50 years in and around the NFL — not a bathroom book that highlights my mistakes.

“I acknowledge the mistakes in the book, but of course, ‘I f***ed up’ is the catch phrase.

“I have, at times reluctantly, gone along with the title, cover, and language in the book. I am not going to be the conductor of a hype train in the book promotion — we have enough hype to work with.

“I hope we can get on the same page in promoting the book authentically.”

It’s unclear how or why this email connects to the recent developments that turned a simple interview with CBS Mornings into an unmitigated shit show. But it’s obvious that, for all he knows about football, Belichick doesn’t know much about publicity. You can’t expect to have it on your own terms, and you have to be ready to address subjects you’d rather not discuss.

Especially innocuous and light topics. Like how you met your girlfriend. Who has morphed into something much more than that. And whose words and actions could permanently seal his path back to the NFL and ultimately tarnish his overall legacy.

But if Belichick doesn’t want everything that comes from the hunt for publicity, he should cancel his book tour. As the Belichick of past years likely would have said about a head coach who diverted time and effort from football to trying to sell a book, “Doesn’t that fucking guy have better things to do?”

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