All-time great tight end Rob Gronkowski will go down as one of the best players in the history of the New England Patriots organization. However, he detailed on Tuesday that his time with the organization was almost cut short after a disagreement with longtime Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
Belichick is widely regarded as one of the greatest football coaches ever. However, he can be a bit cold when it comes to managing the players on his roster.
Gronkowski detailed that he was almost traded by Belichick and the Patriots organization after a “disconnect” between himself and the organization.
“I mean, we were kind of having some disconnect between myself and the organization,” Gronkowski said on Peter Schrager’s weekly podcast. “It was kinda like mayhem a little bit. Maybe I handled myself a little wrong. Maybe if I could go back I would have handled it a little differently.
Rob Gronkowski was almost traded to the Detroit Lions.
He wasn’t having it.
He tells the incredible story — with some bleeps— here, on this week’s episode of “The Season with Peter Schrager”.
@nflnetwork @NFLMedia @gmfb @RobGronkowski pic.twitter.com/Z1DcqPuZhv
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) July 26, 2023
The organization reportedly almost traded him to the Detroit Lions, and Gronkowski stated that he had no intention of ever playing for them, vowing to retire if that trade ultimately happened. This apparently made Belichick even more upset about the situation according to Gronkowski.
“But we’ll just say this overall in the end, whoever I got traded to, I was going to retire. So I was kinda being a do****** a little bit. And then Bill was like ‘let’s get this do******* out of here.”
This situation happened in the 2018 season, which was ultimately the final year that Gronkowski would play for the Patriots organization before retiring for the first time.
Luckily for Patriots fans, this situation passed pretty quickly, and Gronkowski is still loved by most Patriots fans to this day.
