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University of North Carolina football general manager Michael Lombardi is adamant about making sure reports about Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson’s relationship don’t become a distraction.
Hudson shut down a question about how the couple met from Tony Dokoupil during Belichick’s interview with “CBS News Sunday Morning” in April, and the interview generated widespread criticism.
“I mean, a lot of it is just noise,” Lombardi said during an appearance on ESPN Radio’s “Marty & McGee.”
“And for us to be distracted by something that has no bearing, that has no relevance whatsoever, that is a complete falsehood, in terms of what people are saying or what they’re writing. It’s comical. And, for me, to really even attack anybody who’s saying it, gives them credibility. Which I don’t, because it’s a completely false narrative.”
Lombardi pointed to the success the program has had this offseason avoiding the “noise.”
“And the noise out there comes from a direction of people trying to be disruptive within our program. We’re not going to allow it. We’re not going to acknowledge it. We’re gonna move on,” Lombardi said.
BILL BELICHICK INSISTS GIRLFRIEND HAS NO UNC FOOTBALL ROLE, WON’T BE ON SIDELINES
“And, look, let’s face it, the proof’s in the pudding. We’re having a tremendous recruiting class. We had a tremendous portal, and we’re going to continue to get better every day.”
Lombardi said when the interview first aired, there was no reason for concern. He said his concern stems from North Carolina’s football schedule, not the Belichick-Hudson drama.
“Everybody looked at each other and was like in complete amazement. I mean, so, we didn’t have any reason to circle the wagons. The reason we had was to focus on what we’re going to do, as Bill said in a lot of the interviews — and I don’t want to speak for Coach Belichick — but he said, ‘Look, Jordon does stuff in his business outside of North Carolina football, not here.’ I mean, it’s just completely a story that was generated from — basically, made up,” Lombardi said.
“I mean, it’s a tremendous, you know, you could be a great novelist, some of the people that report this stuff. So, we had no, there’s no reason to circle any wagons. Look, when we play Clemson, we’re gonna have to circle the wagons. But we play TCU on the opening game, we’re going to have to circle the wagons. Those are competition. This is just noise.”
Belichick’s coaching debut with North Carolina will come against TCU Sept. 1 at 8 p.m. ET.
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