“This Guy Should Be With the F**king Cheerleaders”: Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski Revisit Bill Belichick ‘Getting Mad’ at Personal Fouls

Bill Belichick has a gruff personality. He’s not someone you’d consider being down for horseplay. However, according to former New England Patriots players, Belichick is actually somewhat funny. According to Matt Cassel, Belichick just has a “super dry sense of humor.”

No, Belichick doesn’t show that side of himself to the masses. He seemingly most often utilizes it to unify his locker room. As a result, sometimes Belichick meshes well with Rob Gronkowski behind the scenes. One time, that held true even after Gronkowski committed one of the coach’s cardinal sins.

Gronkowski’s tale appeared on the latest episode of the Dudes on Dudes podcast. In 2014, against the Indianapolis Colts, Gronkowski received a personal foul penalty for blocking Colts defender Sergio Brown into the sideline cameras after a New England touchdown.

Gronkowski and Julian Edelman informed their audience that Belichick “hated” personal foul penalties. But he apparently didn’t get upset or angry about Gronkowski with his play. In fact, according to Edelman, he used it as teaching tape because Gronkowski “did his job too good.”

“You can’t get mad at a guy for doing his job too good… you drove the guy literally to the back of the end zone… Coach is always in the film room, and [he’ll] say [stuff] like that. ‘This guy should be with the f**king cheerleaders with how he plays. You should block him into the cheerleaders.’ Gronk literally blocked him into the cheerleaders,” Julian Edelman recalled.

There may be nobody on the planet that bleeds football more than Belichick. In a past Games with Names segment, Edelman joked Gronkowski’s block “turned Bill on lowkey.” At the same time, Belichick’s approach with Gronkowski may have stemmed from the tight end earning his trust early in his playing career.

Rob Gronkowski recalls feeling Bill Belichick “believed” in him

It can take time for a player and coach to truly get on the same page. College players aren’t always prepared for the radical lifestyle change that occurs when leaping to the NFL. And in New England’s heyday, there wasn’t a more drastic transition a rookie could go through. The “Patriot Way” is notorious for its serious nature and all-business mentality.

Gronkowski, of course, gives off an entirely different vibe. He found immediate success in Foxborough. Gronk recorded 42 receptions, 546 yards and 10 touchdowns in his first professional campaign.

That production, plus Gronkowski’s strong training camp the next year, put him on Belichick’s good side. Gronkowski knew where he stood after Belichick rewarded him for the dominant offseason work.

“My second year in the league in training camp, when he gave me a parking spot up front… right when that happened, that’s when I felt like I gained his trust. [I thought] ‘he believes in me.'” – Rob Gronkowski

The fact that Gronkowski managed to gain Belichick’s favor so fast is incredible. He did himself no favors during his pre-Draft process in 2010. When Gronkowski was named to the NFL’s All-Time Team in 2019, Belichick revealed the future Hall of Famer fell asleep while visiting New England.

Belichick elected to ignore all of Gronkowski’s red flags when he selected him with the No. 42 overall pick. And his gamble paid off. Gronkowski may have slept on the Pats’ floor, but he kept opposing defensive coordinators up all night. Without him, New England wouldn’t have won three Super Bowls in the 2010s. Perhaps Gronkowski is evidence that fortune truly does favor the bold.