If it wasn’t enough for Jordon Hudson and Bill Belichick to take control over the legendary coach’s interview on The Pivot earlier this month, there now seems to be a fairly extensive cover-up taking place around what happened during the taping.
The first 10 minutes of Belichick’s May 16 interview were strange. For one, they featured host Ryan Clark alone across from Belichick, without cohosts Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor. For two, Clark hardly asked Belichick a question, with the coach instead riffing through responses to his range of enemies.
After Belichick thoroughly grinded his axe, Crowder and Taylor joined for a more traditional podcast interview about the coach’s new book and his football career.
So it came as no surprise when Crowder, during his radio show on Miami’s WQAM the following week, explained that Hudson “choreographed” the sitdown.
That’s when things got even more strange. And now, as first noted by Barrett Media, the evidence of all of that has been deleted from WQAM platforms.
Within days, Crowder backtracked. The former NFL linebacker said in a follow-up episode of The Pivot that his initial account of the interview was inaccurate because he got caught up “in the narrative” around Belichick and let it get the best of him. Crowder revealed he had called Belichick personally to apologize, and did so again on the episode. Then, Clark and Taylor piled on, effectively saying Crowder lied.
Clark then doubled down on X, arguing with NBC’s Mike Florio while again acknowledging Hudson and Belichick’s influence over the final product. Clark claimed that The Pivot is against “moving slimy in the name of clicks.”
Right now, you look at the Hochman & Crowder podcast feed or the WQAM website, Hour 3 of the May 16 show in which Channing Crowder detailed how Hudson and Belichick were involved is gone.
Unlike each other day’s shows, the May 16 show only has Hours 1, 2 and 4 posted. There is no “Full Show” upload, either.
None of Crowder, Clark or Taylor have responded to the news as of 2 p.m. ET on Friday.
In the interview, Belichick claimed that Hudson was helping with PR at North Carolina because the athletic department did not have a sports information director. Belichick also attempted to set the record straight that he and the football program shut down a partnership with HBO and NFL Films for this summer’s Hard Knocks, contrary to reporting from The Athletic that the league axed the arrangement.
The messy first 10 minutes feature jarring jump cuts and were clearly heavily edited.
No one quite wants to pinpoint how The Pivot produced its interview with Belichick, but the fallout is only getting messier as the crew does more damage control.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is an Editorial Lead at Awful Announcing overseeing digital content and special projects. He lives in Phoenix and has covered sports media for Awful Announcing since 2023.