Pablo Torre: Belichick's UNC inner circle (including Mike Lombardi) is "deeply concerned" about Jordon Hudson

NBC Sports

4 days ago

The Bill Belichick/Jordon Hudson story has officially reached the point at which new developments read like a game of drunken Mad Libs.
On Tuesday, Pablo Torre appeared on Bill Simmons's podcast in an effort to squash a sudden beef that arose when Simmons, while discussing the 1978 film Heaven Can Wait, took multiple gratuitous shots at Torre's reporting on the Belichick-Hudson situation.
While they generally got along, Torre seemed to be irked by Simmons's use of the phrase 'pretending to be a journalist,' which would reasonably seem to bother someone who is actually an accomplished journalist. And Torre tried to get Simmons to understand why Torre has spent so much time reporting on the Belichick-Hudson story.
Torre's position is basically this. One, it's a big deal for someone who has been as buttoned up as Belichick for decades to be creating a massive distraction for his current football team. Two, sometimes you have to give the algorithm what it wants.
Which is a different way of saying, as I said to Torre when we discussed the situation last week, 'We don't choose our stories, our stories choose us.'
For any owner/operator of a media outlet that hopes to satisfy the fundamental business objective of generating enough revenue to consistently outpace expenses, some stories demand time and attention — because the audience is consuming that content. From the moment Hudson said, 'We're not talking about this,' anything regarding Belichick and Hudson is what everyone wants to read. (And, yes, we have exercised significant restraint and discretion in passing on potential stories that would have performed extremely well.)
As to Torre's sudden and unexpected Tuesday visit with Simmons (which Sunday Simmons surely would have derided as a continuation of Torre's 'media tour'), I vowed not to write about it unless it contained news. And it did.
In his effort to try to get Simmons to see the light, Torre said this: ""What if I told you that [Belichick's] inner circle of actual coaches on staff, including a certain Mike Lombardi, is deeply concerned about Jordon Hudson and her presence in the building?'
Whether Simmons intended to or not, he quickly pivoted away from the loaded reference to Lombardi (a former employee of Simmons's platform, The Ringer) and focused on something former Patriots receiver Julian Edelman or former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski had said on a podcast. It was a subtle but potentially significant pivot by Simmons, who quite possibly (if not likely) has spoken to Lombardi about this very topic — and who easily could have said to Torre, 'You're absolutely right about that!' or 'You're way, way, way off!'
By spitting the bit once Lombardi's name was mentioned, Simmons deftly avoided what could have been a direct question from the ever-curious Torre. 'Bill, surely you've communicated with Lombardi about this. So what has he said?'
The fact that Simmons didn't contradict Torre when Torre said Lombardi is 'deeply concerned' about Hudson's presence and involvement says plenty. And it helps explain why the previously loquacious consigliere has slammed the brakes on his own non-stop media tour in recent weeks.
As to Simmons, we're now Torre-level curious. Surely, he has spoken to Lombardi. So what has Lombardi said?