CBS News fired back after Bill Belichick accused the network of misrepresenting the “narrative” around his messy “CBS Sunday Morning” interview.
In a statement obtained by Page Six on Wednesday, Belichick claimed he “agreed to speak with ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ to promote my new book, ‘The Art of Winning – Lessons from My Life in Football’” — and that any interviews would “focus solely” on the book and its contents.
But a new statement from CBS denied any such arrangement.
“When we agreed to speak with Mr. Belichick, it was for a wide-ranging interview,” a CBS News spokesperson wrote in a statement shared to X Wednesday.
“There were no preconditions or limitations to this conversation. This was confirmed repeatedly with his publisher [Simon & Schuster] before the interview took place and after it was completed.”
In viral clips from the interview, which aired over the weekend, Belichick’s much-younger girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, interrupted journalist Tony Dokoupil when he asked the college football coach how the pair met.
“We’re not talking about this,” Hudson, 24, said off-camera.
A voiceover by Dokoupil described the former cheerleader as a “contant presence” during the interview with the 73-year-old football legend, and said neither of them were “comfortable” with the topic.
A cavalcade of public criticism followed, with Dave Portnoy, Megyn Kelly and others questioning whether Belichick was being “held hostage” or suffering elder abuse by the pageant contestant.
Hudson defended herself with a series of savage retweets Wednesday, including one reading, “Bill looks like he wants to reach across and strangle the journalist. I kind of wish he did.”
Belichick defended Hudson in his own statement Wednesday, stating that his “expectation [to only talk about the book] was not honored during the interview.”
“I was surprised when unrelated topics were introduced, and I repeatedly expressed to the reporter, Tony Dokoupil, and the producers that I preferred to keep the conversation centered on the book,” he continued.
He then claimed that Hudson intervened “after this occurred several times,” and only to “reiterate that point to help refocus the discussion.”
“She was not deflecting any specific question or topic but simply doing her job to ensure the interview stayed on track,” he said, adding an accusation that the conversation was edited to “appear as though [they] were avoiding the question of how [they] met.”
“The final eight-minute segment does not reflect the productive 35-minute conversation we had, which covered a wide range of topics related to my career,” he said.
“Instead, it presents selectively edited clips and stills from just a few minutes of the interview to suggest a false narrative — that Jordon was attempting to control the conversation — which is simply not true.”
The company that represent’s Belichick’s book, InkWell Management, also weighed in with a statement acknowledging that he discussed football during the interview.
“But the segment that was shown to the public veered into a discussion of Bill’s personal life and away from the subject of his book, resulting in a raft of hostile social media posts about his personal life,” they stated.
“Bill has written an authoritative and entertaining book about success that should be judged by its contents, not by the clicks generated by the segment.”
Hudson and Belichick met during a flight in 2021, when the University of North Carolina coach signed an autograph in her textbook.
They exchanged numbers and eventually began dating, taking their relationship public with an appearance in December at a gala held at the Museum of Natural History.
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