Jason P. Frank
Appearances
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
Totally. No, I actually am the right person to ask this because I grew up in New Hampshire. Perfect. And Bill Belichick famously was the coach of the New England Patriots. I'm not a scientist.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
I don't remember a time when I didn't know who Bill Belichick was. And that's not because I love football. That's not because I follow the Patriots religiously. That's because I was, like, gifted a Patriots jersey in the hospital, basically. Like, that's just what happens in New England. That's how it works. Bill Belichick is an icon to that area, and I think he's an icon
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
to the entire country because the Patriots were so, so successful under him. He created Tom Brady. Tom Brady doesn't exist without Bill Belichick.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
He was always wearing ratty clothing, making millions and millions of dollars a year, and wearing sweatshirts that were cut off and had rips in them.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
And he refused to talk to the media like he always considered media the enemy in a really, really vicious way, which made him always feel very standoffish because the only time that you perceived him was through the media.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
coined a lot of catchphrases that were all very like, do the work.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
If you've ever heard No Days Off, that's a Bill Belichick original.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
And it was really, really successful, but the vibe is bad. The vibe's bad. Very controlling. Now he's about to start coaching at UNC.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
Jordan Hudson spelled O-N. Jordan is spelled with an O-N, which is wrong.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
Yeah, yeah, that's a really... I was poor decision-making, but she didn't make that decision. We can't blame her for that. She's 50 years younger than him. She's a beauty pageant contestant and a former college cheerleader. She's kind of the head of his public relations team, although whether or not that is... A true thing or just functionally the case is a little bit unclear.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
And she is working the media circuit is what she's doing. She's a fascinating personality. No one really can get a real handle on her. She hasn't done a real, real media interview since she started dating him. And yet she's been a constant presence in everything that's been going on in his life.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
is that they met on a plane. She was reading a college textbook. He struck up a conversation with her about that college textbook, which he was apparently really interested in. He signed the textbook.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
No, no, no. He just signed her textbook. Yes. Yeah. Okay. She's from Maine, so it is totally possible that she really knew who this guy was, like, wanted to talk to him anyway before she even realized that Grandpa wanted to date her. And Grandpa did indeed start dating her. Yeah, Grandpa and Jordan are officially dating.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
There's two things that happened. Number one, sports fans started hearing about it because there started being reporting. The Athletic was reporting on her on April 15th. They reported. some stuff about how she was really involved with the coaching at UNC, but that's kind of inside baseball-y, inside football. They also reported that she was filing for trademarks
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
Why do we care about these people? You care because he's Bill Belichick and you care about whoever he's with. And number two, you should care because she's 24 years old and a lot of people are very scared of her.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
for his phrases, which were already coined by the Patriots. So he said them, but they're trademarked by the Patriots. So he can't really like double trademark. So she started trademarking them with parentheses Bill's version after them, like Taylor's version, like no days off Bill's version. So that's like a thing that's happening in the background.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
But then on April 27th, CBS Sunday Morning interviews Bill Belichick about his memoir. It, like, pretty clearly was supposed to be kind of a pretty easy interview. Not, I mean, all up to CBS Sunday morning, but, like, if you want to go and do, like, a pleasant enough interview, they are down for a pleasant interview.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
But Bill Belichick and Jordan Hudson together, like, they're not here for a pleasant interview because if you ask them anything other than, like, what was it like to write the memoir that you probably had ghostwritten, let's be honest, then they're mad. So Tony DeCoppo is interviewing Bill Belichick and then DeCoppo asks him very, very basic questions about Jordan Hudson. How did you guys meet?
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
Which he refuses to answer. And then Hudson from off screen goes, Not talking about this. No. No. But that's the moment that the Jordan Hudson figure kind of blows up. There's also a voiceover from DeCoppo that says, Jordan was a constant presence during our interview.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
This is where it really starts to blow up and where she starts to be known as, like, kind of scary, which I would say is a loaded word and potentially misogynistic, right? Like, do I think that Bill Belichick is entirely in, like, is she puppeteering Bill Belichick to get whatever she wants? I don't know about that.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
Is she involved in places that she probably should not be based on the fact that she has no experience in publicity for football? Yes. Yeah. Like, that's kind of undoubtedly true. She is doing people's jobs for them. But is she scary? Is she all-controlling? This is where, like, the vibe goes a little bit like, she's a witch, she's a succubus, kill her, kill her.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
Like, you see the Salem witch trials start to happen a little bit because, like, she's a weird girl doing weird things but isn't, like, a monster. It's an interesting dynamic where, like, she is being... Potentially inappropriate, particularly in the Sunday morning interview.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
She also reporting comes out that she prevented Hard Knocks, which is a documentary series about football teams, was planning on doing a series about Belichick's first season at UNC. And she blocks that from happening so that she's definitely in places where she maybe shouldn't be. And also people start reacting to her with layers of misogyny.
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
Yeah. Yeah, basically. I know. And it's interesting because normally, I feel like the social media stereotype is that social media perceives May-December relationships as always abuse toward the younger person, right? So you would think that people would be like, protect Jordan Hudson. And that is not what's happening. Instead, it feels like she is being demonized. When I think that...
Today, Explained
What Bill Belichick’s relationship tells us
A more likely situation is that they're both in on this.