The drama surrounding Bill Belichick and his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, has continued to swirl around the duo at Chapel Hill.
But a New York Times feature story last week also painted the picture of a former Patriots head coach in Belichick whose focus during his final year in Foxborough was not solely fixed on a soon-to-be 4-13 football team.
"By the summer of 2023, she was spending time in Foxborough, Mass., where the Patriots are headquartered," Katherine Rosman wrote in her feature piece on Belichick and Hudson. "When she attended training camp practices, she often wore red pants at the request of Mr. Belichick, so that he might more easily spot her in the crowd, according to a person who knows Mr. Belichick and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Mr. Belichick had not given him permission to speak to reporters."
"That fall, when the Patriots played at Gillette Stadium and stayed at a nearby hotel the night before home games -- as mandated by team policy -- Ms. Hudson frequently joined Mr. Belichick there, according to the person who knows Mr. Belichick. The team's record that season was a dismal four wins and 13 losses. Mr. Belichick left the team at the season's end."
While several factors -- including Mac Jones' struggles, porous offensive-line play, and years of whiffs in the NFL Draft -- played a role in New England's disastrous season, WEEI's Adam Jones wondered on Tuesday whether or not Belichick had other distractions in place during a rudderless campaign.
"Tom -- pretty much every week we ask you about the ongoing Bill Belichick saga," Jones asked longtime Patriots insider Tom E. Curran Tuesday on "Jones and Keefe". "The latest - and I'm curious your thoughts on this - really does characterize Bill as distracted at the tail end of his tenure in New England. Red pants at training camp. Hotel rooms leading up to games. Never mind [appearing] on Ring cam videos, etc, etc. Do you think Bill was distracted in 2023?"
Curran -- who covers the Patriots for NBC Sports Boston -- acknowledged that Belichick's priorities had shifted since his days leading a perennial contender in Foxborough, especially after Tom Brady left.
"I don't think it had the same intensity of attention that Bill Belichick from 2000 through 2019 had, no," Curran said. "So the level of attention to detail probably was not the same. So distracted to you and me? I mean, I'm a distracted guy, I don't know if it's that level. But no, his level of intensity was not the same."
But Curran said that such complacency from a six-time Super Bowl champion is also not exactly a byproduct of his relationship with Hudson.
"I think that that was born out in the drafting, the free agent signings, the coaching and succession plans, the easy outs in terms of hiring -- whether it be offensive coordinator or scouting or whatever," Curran said.
"I think Bill very much got to a point where, when he articulated that, 'Why should fans have an expectation of success this year?' posed to him by Mike Reiss at the 2023 owners meetings. And Bill said, 'The last 25 years.' There was very much a kind of resting on his laurels and his reputation and, 'What's the worst that could happen here? I'm Bill Belichick.'"
It remains to be seen if that complacency will remain in place at Chapel Hill as Belichick looks to re-energize a Tar Heels program looking for big returns in 2025. Despite his established resume, this stands as Belichick's first coaching position in college football.