A second Bill Belichick interview has hit the morning-show circuit. On Friday's episode of ABC's Good Morning America, the North Carolina football coach returned to demonstrate that his disastrous CBS interview last month was an anomaly, and that he does know how to display emotion of a mildly jovial nature. The encore wasn't nearly as bad as his sitdown with Tony Dokoupil—this time, he wore a hole-free suit—but the results were still mixed.
On this occasion, NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan was asking the questions, which made for a more football-friendly environment. Once again the bulk of the conversation focused on Belichick's new book, but it was very funny to watch Strahan clearly signal to his guest that he would eventually address the 24-year-old girlfriend in the room. A couple of times in the nine-minute interview, Strahan references Belichick's "personal life."
Usual practice is to ask the toughest questions toward the end of the interview, so eight minutes in, the ABC host brings up Jordon Hudson, last seen lurking in the background of Belichick's CBS interview and answering questions for him. Strahan clarifies to the audience that Hudson is not in the studio. "A lot has been made about your relationship with Jordon Hudson," Strahan says. "What do you think about all the attention your relationship has been getting?"
"She's been terrific through the whole process, and she's been very helpful to me," Belichick said. "She does the business things that don't relate to North Carolina that come up in my life, so I can concentrate on football, and that's really what I want to do. You know, I acknowledged her in the book. She was very helpful on that with the tribute pages, and also giving a perspective of the book from kind of a business side. Sometimes I get a little football technical, and so she did a good job of keeping me on balance there."
OK, not bad. Now here comes a tough one: "So what does Jordon mean to you?"
"Well, we have a good personal relationship and—you know, I'm not talking about personal relationships, Michael," Belichick says with a smile. "You know that." Ha ha, we're all having fun here. Strahan gently tries again in a lighthearted way: "I know that, Coach. But I'm saying: Are you happy?"
The entirety of Belichick's reply: "Yeah." And then a beat.
This guy makes Richard Nixon look like Tom Cruise. "You look happy!" Strahan says, filling that dead air like a pro.
