Two major stories in the football world in recent weeks have been the retooling of Football Night in America at NBC and the ongoing saga involving New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and NFL insider Dianna Russini.

But Jordon Hudson is leading the train into Conspiracy Town in an attempt to tie them together.

Earlier this week, NBC football analyst Chris Simms announced on his PFT Live show with Mike Florio that he would not be returning to FNIA for the upcoming season. NBC is completely reshaping their NFL studio show. Simms joins fellow longtime analyst Tony Dungy towards the exits while the network has added former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.

Also, after operating two sets for years – one in the studio and one on the road in the stadium – Football Night in America will be entirely set at the stadiums for Sunday Night Football this year. The moves are not unexpected and there are likely to be even more changes to come.

But inexplicably, a conspiracy theory has started making the rounds that Chris Simms was somehow fired for addressing the situation between Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini. A clip was posted of Mike Florio joking with Simms while discussing the scandal and telling him to “stay on target.” It was then amplified by an NFL aggregator account with a message that twisted it to assume that Simms was let go from Football Night in America because of it.

And now Jordon Hudson has picked up on it on her own social media feed in multiple posts as she called out Florio by name.

It’s here that we should note that Florio has not been shy in writing about Bill Belichick, Michael Lombardi, and Jordon Hudson with all the drama that encapsulated North Carolina for much of the last year. It’s obvious that he is not a popular figure in the Hudson-Belichick world. And as Hudson has shown, she has a long memory when it comes to media coverage that has provided scrutiny to Chapel Hill, just ask Pablo Torre.

But Florio has also not been shy in covering the Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini story either. There are multiple articles on Pro Football Talk all about it, including shining a light on past reporting from Russini about Vrabel. To then think that the same person would try to actively shut down conversation about it out of fear of NFL or Comcast overlords is to be totally detached from reality.

Yes, it’s true that the Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini is an awkward one for the NFL media world to try to cover given the proliferation of the insider culture. It’s been left to publications like the New York Post, TMZ, and largely independent media outlets to go all-in with all the developments. But that doesn’t mean mainstream outlets have ignored it completely.

Russini’s former outlet, The Athletic, has been covering the Vrabel side of the story. ESPN was the one who reported Vrabel was entering counseling. Mike Greenberg actually asked Roger Goodell about Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini during the NFL Draft with millions watching. Is he at risk of being fired by ESPN and/or the NFL because of it? No.

Maybe Jordon Hudson is just being opportunistic and trying to get a shot in at the football media world that has been a thorn in her side for the last year. But it’s not one that has any basis in fact whatsoever.

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