Monday’s Fox Corporation Upfront briefly turned into the Roast of Bill Belichick. Or so it seems.
According to Awful Announcing contributor Daniel Kaplan, who is attending the Upfront, former New England Patriots tight end and current Fox NFL analyst Rob Gronkowski had some pointed jokes during his segment on stage. Per Kaplan, Gronk took a “joking shot” at his former head coach, who has found himself the center of the offseason’s hottest drama because of his relationship with 24-year-old Jordon Hudson.
On stage, Gronkowski was quizzed by Fox News host Harris Faulkner about when the very first Upfront took place.
“I’m gonna guess, oh, 1962,” Gronk responded.
“That’s impressive. Very good. 1962,” Faulkner replied. “Well, of course, back in 1962, Fox wasn’t even a twinkle in Rupert Murdoch’s eye. Fox didn’t begin broadcasting until 1986.”
“Well, in 1986, Coach Belichick’s girlfriend was a twinkle in his eye,” Gronkowski boldly joked.
Gronkowski just took a joking shot at the Fox upfront at his old HC Bill Belichick and his young girlfriend when it was mentioned Fox launched in 1986, says Belichick’s girlfriend not even a twinkle in his eye that year
— Daniel Kaplan (@KaplanSportsBiz) May 12, 2025
Gronk’s comments came shortly after an interview with 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston in which he criticized Belichick for not sticking to the value system he preached during his career as a head coach.
“You know, and in the back of your head, too, you’re just thinking to yourself as well, ‘When you were on the Patriots, the whole goal was to eliminate all the distractions that can possibly happen while you’re on the team,'” Gronkowski said, per the New York Post.
“And don’t bring those distractions to the team and in the locker room, and we’re just looking down at the program in North Carolina, and it feels like there are just distractions 24/7 down there,” he continued. “There’s no football talk as well.”
That’s a noted change in tune from a couple of weeks ago when Gronkowski and fellow Fox colleague and former Patriots teammate Julian Edelman discussed the situation on their Dudes on Dudes podcast.
“People are giving an unfair reality of what’s going on,” Edelman said. “Because she was jumping into that conversation during the interview, just like any PR person would jump in when there’s an unnecessary question that probably [they] didn’t go over in the pre-production meeting.”
Clearly, in the two weeks since this story became national news, Rob Gronkowski now feels comfortable joking about it at Belichick’s expense. In fairness, Gronk was comfortable joking about it this time last year during Tom Brady’s Netflix roast, too. So maybe not all that much has changed.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.