When we look at the relationship between 73-year-old legendary football coach Bill Belichick and his girlfriend and business partner, 24-year-old Jordon Hudson, it’s hard to know exactly what we’re seeing. Two grown-ups in love forging a dynamic business partnership? Elder abuse, as some have wildly speculated? Or is it, as the vitriolic comments in Hudson’s social media posts would have it, good old-fashioned gold digging?

Gold digging is a misogynistic and retro term, but this scandal is a retro one. It’s a bizarre, slightly offputting mystery that fits remarkably well into our current age of newly regressive gender politics.

Hudson and Belichick, the six-time Super Bowl-winning former NFL coach, met on a flight in 2021 and went public with their relationship last December. While their nearly 50-year age gap has raised eyebrows amid observers, the scandal has only grown as Hudson has taken on an increasingly central role in Belichick’s professional world.

It’s a bizarre, slightly offputting mystery that fits remarkably well into our current age of newly regressive gender politics.

Belichick requested Hudson be cc’ed on all publicity and media emails about him at the University of North Carolina, where he is now a college football coach. In public records, she’s listed as the manager of several companies which appear to be tied to Belichick. Insider accounts say she essentially cast herself in a Dunkin Donuts commercial in which Belichick appeared, and that she blocked a docuseries about Belichick’s career.

But speculation around the relationship reached a fever pitch when Hudson interrupted during Belichick’s interview on CBS Sunday Morning in April. “How did you guys meet?” host Tony Dokoupil asked Belichick, referring to Hudson. “We’re not talking about this,” Hudson cut in tersely from off camera. “Jordon was a constant presence during our interview,” Dokoupil informs viewers in........

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