Two weeks after offering perhaps the most exhaustive journalism to date on the relationship between Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson, Pablo Torre is at it again.
On a new episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, the ex-ESPN writer did a deep dive on the famous Ring camera video featuring a shirtless Belichick that’s been circulating for nearly a year. And in doing so, Torre unearthed the existence of another Ring camera video featuring a similarly shirtless Belichick at the same Airbnb rental as the original video, this time carrying a satchel.
Torre proceeded to rent the New England-area unit, where he not only filmed a recreation of one of the Belichick Ring videos, but encountered its owners. That led him to discover how the original video ultimately leaked as a result of the owners attempting to verify whether it was Belichick who was staying at their rental.
“We saw the Ring video in the morning not knowing who this was, but it was an older gentleman with a very young woman who checked in the night before,” the female owner of the Airbnb told Torre.
Who was the older gentlemen? The Airbnb owners had some initial theories.
“She’s with this creepy old guy who’s either her relative or a drug dealer was the first thing [we thought]. Because of the age discrepancy, you go ‘he must be a freaking coke dealer,'” the male owner of the Airbnb told Torre. “And then I started looking. I’m like, ‘that does look like Belichick.'”
The owners — admitted sports fans — also noted Belichick’s walk, as well as his tan, which made sense because the New England Patriots were in the middle of OTAs. The owners also found it odd that Hudson and Belichick only stayed at the property for one night despite having rented it for four.
“At first we thought she was like a dancer or an escort,” the male owner said of Hudson. “She said she was a dancer. Something was off. It just didn’t make sense.”
So how did the Ring video get out?
In an attempt to make sense of the situation, the owners sent the video to a friend. And once it was out of their custody, it was out of their control, with the video making its way to the tabloids and The Roast of Tom Brady.
“I don’t think we ever really thought of it in that way until we probably saw when someone other than us released the video and then when it was on the Netflix special and then it came out a few more times,” the female owner said. “It’s kind of crazy now to think about.”
So there you have it: the Bill Belichick Ring camera video didn’t leak as a result of blackmail as some had theorized, but rather because of Airbnb owners who were trying to make sense of their customers’ curious behavior. But lest you believe they have any remorse about letting the video get out, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Rather, according to Torre, their biggest regret is that they weren’t the ones to have profited from it.