Last year, during the Tom Brady roasy, comedian Nikki Glaser joked about Gronk: “You’re not really as dumb as you look and sound and act and are. You might be dumber.” Dumb jock? Think again. Rob Gronkowski is a savvy businessman with endorsements that net him millions. True, the Arizona alum wasn’t all-knowing when he came under Bill Belichick, missing his junior year as he shielded him with all that stuff. But is the hoodie now doing the same as a CFB coach at UNC though?

Before we get there, Gronk lays out how navigating fame and money in New England wasn’t exactly a cakewalk. For any young player under Bill Belichick, the balancing act of football and endorsement deals could’ve been suffocating. On The Ryen Russillo Podcast, he reflected on the dynamic: “And another thing about the other question though is I did learn this as well is that it will always be there if you take care of your business on the football field and I’ve learned that right away actually.” Keeping the number one thing the number one thing and doing what you are here for, playing football. Those “marketing deals, they will come.” That was the Patriot way in a nutshell: football first, everything else second.

Now the spotlight shifts to Chapel Hill. When Russillo pressed Gronk on whether Bill Belichick as a college recruiter would have appealed to him, the tight end didn’t hesitate to cast the college experiment as a grand unknown. “With coach Belichick at North Carolina, it’s a mystery this year. I’m excited for college football. He kind of has that Deion Sanders effect right now. Everyone’s interested in what the Tar Heels are going to do this year, but it’s also like what are they going to do? Like no one knows. No one knows how coach Belichick is going to be as a coach there. I mean yes, he’s the greatest NFL coach of all time, but no one knows what he can do in the college ranks. And also with all of these different headlines going on and so many distractions, how is he going to come out on the other side of all this? So I’m very interested in it.” For Gronk, the intrigue isn’t just about X’s and O’s. It’s whether Belichick can adapt to the NIL tidal wave.

That’s the subplot that lingers over this Tar Heel story. As Gronk added, “And with all the marketing deals going on, everything too, it’s definitely new to him.” Almost certain that the vet coach has to have a team underneath him that’s dealing with all that because everyone knows he doesn’t really like to deal with that type of stuff. “He’s a guy that wants to just focus on the X’s and O’s and teach the game of football. So, he has to have a team there that’s dealing with the NIL stuff with these kids at North Carolina.” It’s a practical observation. Belichick spent 20 years suppressing distractions at Patriots. Now, he has to manage a landscape where distractions like NIL collectives, sponsorship pitches, and social media brands are baked into the job.

For his part, Belichick hasn’t blinked. “I enjoy it. I’ve always wanted to be in college football,” he told The Boston Globe. “I grew up in college football. This is a great university, it’s a great opportunity here. The kids are great, they work hard, they want to be good, and they try. Working with a lot of people I like to work with, and I enjoy coming to work every day. That’s an important quality of life.” He’s stacked his UNC staff with familiar hands. Both of his sons are there. So is his old colleague Michael Lombardi as GM. Moses Cabrera is overseeing conditioning, and Jamie Collins is coaching linebackers. Bill Belichick isn’t starting from scratch. He’s transplanting the Patriot infrastructure into Carolina blue.

The transition hasn’t been free of drama. Seemingly right after those optimistic words, Belichick couldn’t resist a subtle jab at Robert Kraft, hinting at the long-simmering tension with New England’s front office. It was a reminder that even with a fresh start, old scars linger. That adds spice to what’s already one of the most fascinating subplots in football: the greatest NFL coach of all time stepping into a college arena where recruiting, branding, and culture matter as much as third-down efficiency.

Bill Belichick loves his newfound freedom to coach

Bill Belichick hasn’t wasted any time pulling back the curtain on what life is like now that he’s left the NFL grind for college. Comparing his 49 years in the league to his first taste of the college game, Belichick admitted, “It’s a much more cohesive, and I’d say unified, view of what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it. It’s a lot of football, and there’s not much in your way.” Translation: no more red tape, no more endless meetings, and no more owners hovering over every decision.

But of course, Belichick being Belichick, he didn’t just leave people guessing what that meant. He got very specific. “There’s no owner, there’s no owner’s son, there’s no [salary] cap, everything that goes with the marketing and everything else, which I’m all for that. But it’s way less of what it was at that level.” That’s a not-so-subtle nod at Robert Kraft and Jonathan Kraft, the very voices he had to navigate around in New England. And he wasn’t done.

Belichick laid it bare: “I’d say when we had our best years in New England, we had fewer people and more of a direct vision. And as that expanded, it became harder to be successful.” Too many cooks in the kitchen, plain and simple. Now in Chapel Hill, Belichick has found what he craves most: control, clarity, and a clean runway to just coach ball.