Rob Gronkowski is a three-time champion who has appeared in five Super Bowls over the past decade. This season, he will be participating in the big game once more – only this time as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Back in 2018, Gronkowski famously retired following the New England Patriots’ championship victory over the Los Angeles Rams. Despite multiple attempts by the organization to lure him back to football, he resisted. That all changed this past offseason, when Tom Brady signed with the Bucs and recruited his favorite tight end to join him.
This week, Gronkowski rubbed salt in Patriots’ fans wounds by describing why he prefers his current situation to the one he was in with the Patriots.
“Coming here, it’s a complete 180, for sure, totally different,” he said on Sirius XM NFL Radio, per JoeBucsFan.com. “I mean, I feel like the biggest difference is just having the freedom of being yourself in this organization.”
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has been known to lead his franchise in a very serious manner, so Gronkowski’s comments shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Now we know what motivates Gronk to play so hard. https://t.co/xFnKnjoXQ4
— Game 7 (@game7__) January 24, 2021
Back when the Philadelphia Eagles defeated New England to win the Super Bowl, Lane Johnson famously called them a “fear-based organization” on Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take” podcast.
“I just think that The Patriot Way is a fear-based organization,” he said.
“Obviously, do they win? Hell yes, they win. They’ve won for a long time. Do I think people enjoy and can say, ‘I had a lot of fun playing there’? No, I don’t. That’s just the God’s honest truth. “They’re successful, but when they go to interviews, they act like [expletive] robots. Hey, stop being a [expletive] head. We can be cordial for a little bit. You only get to do this job one time, so let’s have fun while we’re doing it. Not to be reckless, but we’d much rather have fun and win a Super Bowl than be miserable and win five Super Bowls. But hey, it is what it is.”
Patrick Mahomes’ lame brother tried to steal someone’s girlfriend and learned a valuable lesson in the process.https://t.co/OK7Nh5SMdR
— Game 7 (@game7__) January 28, 2021
It seems like Gronkowski agrees with that assessment, at least to some degree.
This past year numerous opposing teams came out and publicly mocked Belichick’s way of doing things. It seems like now some of his former players are coming out and taking little shots at the Patriots Way as well. Brady said something similar earlier this week.
The one thing the Belichick Way always had going for it was the fact that it worked better than other methods of doing things. If the Buccaneers suddenly prevail in a different fashion, it could completely flip the script on the how to win in the NFL.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
