Relevance.

[DanOregon]

Not to beat a dead horse, but thinking about the Belichick stuff, I wonder how "relevant" he'd be in the current sports landscape without the 24-year-old girlfriend. Would people be talking about him much? He'd be a sad old guy who was pushed out of NE and giving it the old college try - like Bill Walsh and John Robinson did, Herm Edwards etc. Maybe worthy of a pre-season feature, or ahem - something on CBS Sunday Morning about how he's adjusting to dealing with college kids - but people wouldn't be talking about him much at all. He gives the girlfriend relevance too obviously.
Similarly, Deion gave Colorado relevance. The trip to space gave Katy Perry relevance - if only for 11 minutes.
The thought struck me that the Dallas Cowboys, in particular Jerry Jones, seem to thrive on being relevant and yet appear to have fallen off of the face of the NFL. No big trades, no major FA signings. Even when they haven't been serious contenders, people at least talked about them.

 

[justgladtobehere]

The interview was promotion for his book. Good chance he would have had the Sunday Morning interview without the girlfriend.

 

[DanOregon]

I don't know. A lot of these book deals are more about how you will "sell it" than what is between the covers. Bill O'Reilly wasn't a writer before he started pushing his books on his TV show, same with a lot of cable hosts. Various scandal-tinged celebrities have hyped their books and subsequent book tours by allowing a question or two about something they may not particularly want to talk about, a break-up, an embarrassment, etc. Celeb: "It was part of my life, but so now is yoga and healthy living, which is why I'm so excited to talk about THAT on this book tour. "We'll get to that, sure, but you've never really talked about that Super Bowl halftime wardrobe malfunction..."

 

[Webster]

He’s the most famous NFL coach (if not coach in all of sports) and he has been forced to move to college, which itself is undergoing rapid change. That’s a huge story regardless. The girlfriend stuff is like Taylor Swift dating Kelce — it moves the story to something different where my wife knows about it.

 

[DanOregon]

Where a non-sports fan would be interested. I imagine much like Hollywood producing movies and trying to hit "four-quadrants" Males and females above and below 25, TV producers also "sell" stories to reach multiple audiences. Like what they do with the Olympics, turn two weeks of sports into a human drama

 

[Here me roar]

My husband is not a sports fan for the most part, but he mentioned to me this morning about this thing with Bill Belichick and his girlfriend. And his take on it was that he was wondering if Belichick was a victim of elder abuse. So I don't know how this story is playing. I personally think it's pathetic. Belichick is a unpleasant, unattractive human being in almost every way. He landed this chick with his wallet.

 

[I Should Coco]

My husband is not a sports fan for the most part, but he mentioned to me this morning about this thing with Bill Belichick and his girlfriend. And his take on it was that he was wondering if Belichick was a victim of elder abuse. So I don't know how this story is playing. I personally think it's pathetic. Belichick is an unpleasant, unattractive human being in almost every way. He landed this chick with his wallet.

My wife’s comment basically was, even with the money, media attention and (most likely) young lover(s) on the side, a 24-year-old still has to see and please a frumpy, grumpy and ugly 70-something naked guy.

No reward is worth this!