Bill Belichick says Rob Gronkowski fell asleep during pre-draft visit with Patriots

Rob Gronkowski was certainly a character during his playing days with the Patriots, but his antics stretch before his days in New England.

When Gronkowski was added to the NFL’s All-Time Team on Friday night, coach Bill Belichick shared a story about Gronkowski falling asleep on the floor during his pre-draft visit with the Patriots.

“Rob was kind of a shot in the dark. He came up on his pre-draft visit, had a bad visit,” Belichick said. “We put him in a room, came back and he was asleep on the floor.”

Added Belichick: “Didn’t make a very good impression.”

Bill Belichick tells the story of how the @Patriots drafted @RobGronkowski, with an interesting pre-draft visit ?#NFL100 pic.twitter.com/dC8JMDh2BL

— NFL (@NFL) December 14, 2019

In addition to falling asleep during his visit, Belichick said Gronkowski’s back injury during his junior season at Arizona made it even more of a risk when the Patriots selected him in the second round in the 2010 NFL Draft.

As we know now: Drafting Gronkowski ended up being a successful selection.

“We traded up for him, and we kind of just bet that he would come through,” Belichick said. “He certainly did, big time.”