A podcast episode focused on the 1978 film “Heaven Can Wait” resulted in Bill Simmons taking aim at Pablo Torre over the Meadowlark Media host’s reporting on Bill Belichick’s relationship with Jordon Hudson.
Such is life in 2025.
Simmons’ rant came one hour and 36 minutes into the May 27 episode of The Rewatchables, which centered on the 47-year-old Warren Beatty classic. As co-hosts Chris Ryan and Van Lathan discussed a plot point involving the character Leo Farnsworth, Simmons saw an opportunity to rip Torre’s recent attachment to college football’s most famous couple.
“Pablo Torre would’ve done a long podcast about Leo Farnsworth trying to practice with the team, and then done a media tour about it afterwards,” Simmons said. “I’ve never seen anybody dine on a stupider story for a week and a half while pretending you’re a journalist. What the f*ck was that? Seriously.”
As Ryan and Lathan each reacted with shock to the amount of animosity The Ringer founder was displaying, Simmons continued.
“Belichick’s dating a girl. ‘Oh, let me do nine shows about it,'” he said. “Settle the f*ck down.”
As a diehard New England Patriots fan, Simmons obviously isn’t the most objective arbiter of all things Belichick. As such, Ryan questioned whether The Sports Guy would be having the same reaction if Torre’s reporting focused on somebody like Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie.
“Alright, alright. You don’t need to do a media tour about a f*cking podcast,” Simmons insisted.
“It was a story that everybody was talking about to be fair,” Lathan rebutted.
“That’s fine. Maybe do two shows about it,” the Boston native replied.
Bill Simmons LASHES OUT at Pablo Torre for his coverage of Bill Belichick and his girlfriend pic.twitter.com/BuwoJ4nyaG
— The r/BillSimmons Podcast (@rBillSimmonsPod) June 2, 2025
To Simmons’ point, the Pablo Torre Finds Out host hasn’t been hard to find in the month since he released the first of his two deep dive episodes focused on Belichick and Hudson. In the weeks since he first reported that Hudson had been banned from the North Carolina football facilities, the ex-ESPN writer has participated in several media interviews, in addition to being featured in publications such as Vanity Fair and The Athletic.
Conversely, as Ryan and Lathan tried to point out, there’s a reason why so many outlets have wanted to talk to Torre: because he’s emerged as the preeminent reporter covering the sports story that everybody seems to be talking about. And despite Simmons’ attempt to downplay the… let’s say, “unique”… nature of the relationship between the 73-year-old Belichick and 24-year-old Hudson, Torre has been open about his passion for “taking stupid things seriously.”
Has Torre’s recent fixation on Belichick and Hudson been a bit much at times? Perhaps. But clearly there’s a market for it. And it’s also worth noting that Bill Simmons — who has made a recent habit of taking shots at Meadowlark Media — has even discussed the relationship on multiple episodes of his own podcast in recent weeks.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.