Rob Gronkowski is now worried about Bill Belichick’s relationship with Jordon Hudson
The former Patriot recalled Belichick’s “whole goal” for the Patriots was to “eliminate all the distractions”
Gronkowski previously defended their relationship on his podcast
Rob Gronkowski seems to have changed his mind about Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson’s relationship.
In an interview with 98.5 The Sports Hub, the former New England Patriot, 35, who previously defended the couple’s relationship, expressed concern that Hudson, 24, is creating “distractions” for Belichick, 73, ahead of his first season at the University of North Carolina.
When the hosts asked Gronkowski, who played under Belichick for nine seasons, if he thought the ongoing frenzy over the couple’s 49-year age gap was “funny,” he said, “it is.”
Gronkowski explained that in the “back of” his head, he’s been thinking to himself about how strict Belichick was about not allowing distractions to interfere with success on the football field.
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Rob Gronkowski and Bill Belichick at Super Bowl XLIX
“You know, and in the back of your head, too, you’re just thinking to yourself as well, ‘When you were on the Patriots, the whole goal was to eliminate all the distractions that can possibly happen while you’re on the team.”
Gronkowski continued, “And don’t bring those distractions to the team and in the locker room, and we’re just looking down at the program in North Carolina and it feels like there are just distractions 24/7 down there. There’s no football talk as well.”
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Gronkowski’s take on Friday was a change from his previous opinion on Belichick and Hudson’s relationship. Just a few days after Hudson’s controversial interjection during Belichick’s CBS interview, Gronkowski and former teammate Julian Edelman said on their podcast Dudes on Dudes that Hudson was simply acting as her boyfriend’s publicist.
“People are giving an unfair reality of what’s going on,” Edelman, 38, argued. “Because she was jumping into that conversation during the interview just like any PR person would jump in when there’s an unnecessary question that probably [they] didn’t go over in the pre-production meeting.”
Belichick’s former players explained that Hudson was “playing the Berj role,” referring to Berj Najarian, Belichick’s former close adviser with the Patriots. “When you look at this situation and you say, ‘This is his girlfriend jumping in,’ I think that’s unfair,” Edelman added. “I think she’s actually working with coach Belichick in the professional world.”
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Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson attend the 14th Annual NFL Honors at Saenger Theatre on February 06, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Gronkowski’s change of tune comes amid Belichick supporting Hudson in the Miss Maine pageant over the weekend of May 10 and 11. The Tar Heels coach sat front row as he watched Hudson take the stage and nab third place in the competition.
Also on May 11, Good Morning America announced that Belichick will sit down with Michael Strahanfor an exclusive interview about his book, The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football, and potentially touching on his controversial relationship with Hudson.
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