Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has been defended by one of the NFL team's ex-players amid news he is dating a woman about 48 years his junior.
Earlier this summer, Belichick, 72, embarked on a romance with Jordon Hudson, who is 23 or 24, according to media reports. While the relationship had been going for some time, it made headlines during the Tom Brady Roast on Netflix in May, when the former Patriots quarterback poked fun at his erstwhile coach.
Pharoah Brown, who served as a tight end on the team last season, has now spoken out in defense of the pairing, saying that Belichick, like everybody else, should be allowed to "find love and be happy."
Brown, who signed to the Seattle Seahawks this offseason, told TMZ Sports: "The older you get, the more rules they try to get you to follow. You've just got to keep living... He's living his life, man."
"My take is that everybody lives their life how they want to live their life," Brown continued. "There's no hard feelings."
"I really don't think about the age [gap] once we get grown," he added. "My whole thing in life is, like, everybody find love and be happy. If he's in love, if he's happy, that's all you can want for another man, for another human—for anyone."
Newsweek has contacted representatives of Belichick via email for comment and is attempting to confirm Hudson's age.
Super Bowl-winning coach Belichick first led the Patriots in 2000, the same year that Hudson was born. He announced he was leaving the team this past February.
It has been reported that the NFL veteran and Hudson met in 2021 while she was still a student at Bridgewater State University, which is located about 33 miles south of Boston. She recently came first-runner up at the Miss USA Maine pageant.
Belichick even signed her Deductive Logic textbook at the time and their first meeting was captured in a selfie, dug up by TMZ Sports.
"Jordon, thanks for giving me a course on logic! Safe travels!" Belichick appeared to write in the book, which he signed on February 11, 2021, and added numbers for years he won six Super Bowls as the Patriots head coach.
The pair reportedly remained in touch and friendly, until Belichick ended things with his long-term girlfriend, Linda Holliday. They began dating in 2022, and have been spotted vacationing in Croatia and even together at Brady's Hall of Fame induction on June 12.
According to TMZ Sports, Hudson moved into Belichick's home in Hingham, Massachusetts, around the start of the year.
During Netflix's Tom Brady Roast, Brady brought up a video of Ring cam footage showing a shirtless Belichick entering Hudson's reported Massachusetts home in November.
"Everybody asks me which ring is my favorite, I used to say 'the next one,'" Brady joked, referring to his multiple Super Bowl wins.
At the time, it was not known whose house Belichick was entering, but within days multiple media outlets reported Belichick was filmed on the Ring camera at Hudson's house.
While the relationship blossomed, athlete Brown said that Belichick made no mention of Hudson to him or his then-teammates.
"One thing about Bill Belichick," Brown told TMZ Sports. "He's one of the greatest coaches 'cause he keeps it professional. He knows how to keep the main thing, the main thing, right? So when you walk into the football place, it's always football. Personal life is personal life."
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