Rob Gronkowski provided an allegory on the extent to which Bill Belichick wanted the Patriots to demolish all opponents.
Speaking to Front Office Sports on behalf of the Gronk Geeks Out live show that he will be doing with eBay at the National Collectors Convention outside Chicago later this week, Gronkowski revealed one of the reasons that the walls of his house are not filled with framed jerseys—besides his own and his brothers’, all of which are hanging in the weight room in his basement.
“I never really collected anything from anybody else. That ‘jersey swap’ and everything just kind of wasn’t for me,” Gronkowski said. “Coach Belichick really didn’t like us jersey-swapping. That was our opponent. He’d be like, ‘No jersey swapping after the game. We want to beat the crap out of them. We don’t want to be friends with them.’ Jersey-swapping and getting memorabilia from others really wasn’t a thing at the time.”
Still, the four-time Super Bowl champion amassed plenty of keepsakes over his 11-year NFL career. Gronkowski said his favorite piece of personal memorabilia was his own jersey from Super Bowl XLIX, where New England beat Seattle 28-24 on Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception.
As for Belichick, the now-North Carolina head coach’s reputation for demanding discipline didn’t necessarily mean he wanted all of his players to fit that same mold. That rang especially true for Gronkowski, who admitted he was given more free rein to be expressive and goofy off the field.
“I would definitely say I had a little bit of a longer leash than others,” Gronkowski acknowledged. “That was because of the precedent that I set when I got there. When I got drafted, I was jumping up on my stage with my family members, getting rowdy, and giving chest bumps to Roger Goodell. It was who I was and that’s why it worked, because it wasn’t like I was trying to be somebody else—and Coach Belichick saw that.”
“On top of that as well, I always know, ‘If I’m going to have a little bit of personality and be louder than most … I gotta show up on the field.’ I always knew that in the back of my mind. I always practiced hard, I always played hard in the games, I always gave it my all. So if you’re giving it your all on the football field and in practice, Coach kind of gives you leeway because he understands, ‘That’s what’s making Rob such a great football player. That’s just how he is on and off the field. That personality leads to him being a great football player.’”
The Gronk Geeks Out live stream can be watched this Saturday afternoon at 5:00 pm ET here.
