Mike Florio ,
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Jordon Hudson, the 24-year-old girlfriend of 73-year-old North Carolina coach Bill Belichick, recently said she’s suing Pablo Torre . Earlier this week, Belichick was asked about the development.
“How much of those distractions seeped out into the team?” a reporter said. “How much time do they take from what you’re trying to accomplish? And is there a way to in your mind kind of try to eliminate some of that drama ?”
“Yeah, I’m just focused on the game,” Belichick said, referring to the season finale against N.C. State. “That’s what our team’s focused on.”
It’s hard to imagine that the situation hasn’t trickled into the locker room, at some level. With all those players, one of them surely saw something about the looming (supposedly) lawsuit — or about the social-media skirmish that followed between Hudson and Torre.
If Hudson is getting good legal advice, and if she’s following it, she’d be saying nothing about the situation. Her willingness to try to prove via Twitter that Torre made “MANY inaccurate and materially defamatory” statements (if she thinks what she posted is some sort of smoking gun, good luck in court) reveals to the trained eye a significant degree of naivete regarding how the litigation world works.
It makes her potential case seem, in my opinion, unserious. It makes her seem, in my opinion, unserious. It makes the whole thing look like, in my opinion, a way for her to remain relevant after the UNC football season ends in two days.
It also reflects poorly, in my opinion, on Belichick. If, as many believe, he still wants to get back to the NFL, this kind of stuff won’t make him any more attractive to owners than he otherwise is.
That currently seems to fall somewhere between “not very” and “not at all.”
Yeah, sure. It only takes one team. And yeah, sure, there are more than a few dysfunctional NFL teams. It’s hard to imagine even the most dysfunctional team welcoming Belichick to town — and trying to sell him to the media and fan base — after the cumulative events and developments of the past 12 months.
Should he be elected without hesitation to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the coming weeks? Definitely. Have the accomplishments that make Belichick worthy of a no-debate, first-ballot enshrinement been obscured by a variety of other factors since he last won a Super Bowl seven years ago?
Absolutely.
Big Shield combines gambling, pro football, and the mob into a cautionary tale regarding inside information, and the dangers that come from selling it.
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