North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick has received some criticism for having his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, on the sideline with him before the Tar Heels game against UCF this past weekend.
Former NFL head coach Jon Gruden, who won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, appeared on Wake Up Barstool this week and was asked for his reaction to seeing the couple on the field during pregame warmups.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Jon Gruden said. “You know, Mike Lombardi works for North Carolina. I’ve heard him criticize me several times. I’m sure he’ll produce a TikTok today explaining exactly what was going on there.”
Gruden, who was also the head coach of the Raiders, gave a sarcastic answer when asked if his wife ever joined him down on the field.
“Well actually she called the game-winner against the Ravens on Monday Night Football a couple of years ago,” he said. “She came down on the field and helped me through a tough situation. It was an all-out blitz, and she told me to go with 58 surge. So thank God she saved the day that day.”
Former NFL tight end and current NFL analyst Greg Olsen had a different opinion from Gruden.
According to Olsen, if North Carolina was winning games, no one would care about Jordon Hudson being down on the field.
“Listen, I think in today’s college world, I think there’s all sorts of stuff that a lot of us are not used to seeing – who’s on the sideline, who runs programs, who has say into programs, the influence,“ Olsen said. ”I don’t think Belichick necessarily cares what anybody thinks. I think Belichick’s going to do his thing. I think he’s going to have who he wants on the sideline, who he doesn’t want on the sideline. He obviously values her opinion in a lot of factors.
“Do I care if a coach’s wife, girlfriend, kids are on the sideline before, during, after a game? I don’t necessarily care. But I guess to each their own. At the end of the day, if you win, you can bring your whole family on the sideline. She could wear a headset if they were winning.”
Unfortunately for North Carolina, the Tar Heels are not.
UNC is off to a 2-2 start to the season after suffering a disappointing 34-9 loss to UCF on Saturday.
Barstool Sports owner and noted Patriots fan Dave Portnoy is surprised to see Bill Belichick and his 24-year-old girlfriend walking around on the sideline and believes it certainly isn’t helping the struggles at UNC.
“Here’s the thing, I followed the Patriots and this was the ultimate no distraction guy,” Portnoy said. “‘Don’t talk to the media. Don’t do anything that gets the people talking.’ Well, they’re talking, and they’re losing by 30.”