Bill Belichick-Jordon Hudson Relationship 'Not a Distraction' for UNC, WR Shipp Says

One of the biggest storylines of the college football offseason has been the relationship between 73-year-old Bill Belichick and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, and how much of a role she has, or doesn't have, at North Carolina.

Tar Heels' players don't seem particularly bothered, however.

"Social media can promote some narrative, but that was not a distraction to us at all," UNC receiver Jordan Shipp told reporters Thursday. "There was never a problem, like people saying she was running practice. We'd never really see her in the building. That was never a problem."

Granted, even if Hudson was playing a prominent role behind the scenes, it's hard to imagine one of the players calling it out publicly and facing the potential wrath of the man who controls their playing time. But Shipp doubled down on the entire situation being more of a story in the media than something that impacted the team.

"If anything, I feel like it's not a distraction because it's always good to have somebody in your corner in the building, just knowing they support us," he said. "We support Coach B no matter what he's doing. We're behind him 100 percent. Whatever stuff is in the news drug on more than it really was. It was never a distraction, never an issue, never a problem."

Belichick's first game as the head coach of North Carolina will be on Monday, Sept. 1 against TCU.