As disastrously as Bill Belichick’s first season as the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels football program went, he is undeniably one of the greatest to ever put on a headset. It may take the prickly Belichick longer than it should to make the Hall of Fame, but his record eight Super Bowl wins as a coach, six of which he earned as the head coach of the New England Patriots, speak for themselves.
Ahead of his second season with the Tar Heels, Belichick appeared on The Herd and reminisced with Colin Cowherd on what led the Patriots to draft one of the key members from his time in New England, Rob Gronkowski, after his pedestrian collegiate career.
“I watched him at Arizona too, but not for very long,” Belichick responded after Cowherd asked if he knew immediately the impact the tight end would have as a professional.
“You know, he didn’t play much as a freshman, and then he caught, you know, 30-some passes as a sophomore, and most of those were slants and hitches. He didn’t really do much in the passing game. And then of course he missed his junior year with the back injury and came out early. So there’s no video on him really to speak of, certainly very little in the passing game.”
“When he came in on his visit he fell asleep. It was a terrible visit, one of the worst we ever had…”@colincowherd asks @UNCFootball head coach Bill Belichick about Rob Gronkowski’s time with the Patriots pic.twitter.com/Mj6wtos9MX
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) July 17, 2026
Belichick then went on to describe a disastrous pre-draft visit that Gronkowski had that led many in the organization to sour on him.
“He fell asleep,” he recalled. “It was a terrible visit, one of the worst we ever had. Um, several of our coaches said, this guy’s just not a fit for the New England Patriots. Like, and he doesn’t even care enough to stay awake on the visit.”
The North Carolina coach said it was only after Gronkowski’s college coach, Mike Stoops, vouched for the tight end despite his lack of production that the Pats selected him in the second round, before drafting the infamous Aaron Hernandez in the fourth.
“Stoops was really a big advocate for him. And so, you know, we took him in the second round, and then, you know, Aaron was still there in the fourth round, and we’re like, all right, well, we’ll take him too.”
It wasn’t until Gronk ran some routes in a preseason game and displayed his massive catch radius and concentration that the staff had an idea of what they had in him.
“Rob was always open, even when the defenders were all over him. They were all over one side of them, but they couldn’t get to the other side. He could reach and extend for the ball, and (Tom Brady) would put it there where the other guy couldn’t get it. And that’s why Rob was always open, and he had tremendous hands and concentration.”
Since retiring as a four-time Super Bowl champion, Gronkowski has joined the media side of the NFL, serving as an analyst for Fox and hosting “The Other Football” on Tubi. The stern and stoic Belichick had nothing but good things to tell Cowherd about coaching the high-octane Gronkowski.
“I mean, he comes across a little differently than the way he plays, but he had a great temperament, great guy to coach. But man, the evaluation on him was tough coming out of Arizona. It was, it was really tough.”
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.