Bill Belichick doesn’t sugarcoat much, and his first impression of Rob Gronkowski was no exception. The legendary coach recently opened up about the tight end’s rocky introduction to New England. It was a visit so underwhelming that coaches openly questioned whether Gronkowski belonged on the roster at all.

“When he came in on his 30-30 visit, he fell asleep,” Bill Belichick said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. “It was a terrible visit, one of the worst we ever had. 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.”

Rob Gronkowski’s road to New England wasn’t exactly smooth sailing, and honestly, his collegiate career didn’t help his case much either.

Coming out of Arizona, Gronkowski had shown flashes, racking up 16 touchdowns for over 1,100 receiving yards during his college run. But durability was a real concern. He sat out the last three games of his sophomore year battling mono and strep throat, and things got worse from there. He missed his entire junior season after he underwent back surgery. According to Belichick, there was “no video on him, really, to speak of.”

So what changed the Patriots’ minds? According to Belichick, it came down to a conversation with Gronkowski’s college head coach.

“So, we got over that, and the turning point was when I talked to Coach (Mike) Stoops,” Belichick said. “And Coach Stoops said, ‘You know, this guy is really good in the passing game.’

“And so based on Stoops’s recommendation, his head coach, and based heavily on that, certainly not on his 30-30 visit,” Belichick said. “Rob will tell you that it was terrible. Stoops was really a big advocate for him. And we took him in the second round . … That’s how we ended up with him.”

New England ended up trading up to grab Gronkowski at 42nd overall in the second round of the 2010 draft, and well, the rest is history. He went on to haul in 521 catches for 7,861 yards and 79 touchdowns before retiring in 2019. Out of all the people who caught passes from Tom Brady, no one had better synergy with him than Gronkowski, who lovingly became known as Gronk.

“I think our environment kind of kept him really serious, which I think [was] probably a good thing for him in the end. Because I think if he was on another team, where the coach let him get away with a lot of stuff, Gronk maybe would have veered a little that way.”

Gronkowski won three Super Bowls with New England, and one more with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When the time comes, he sure will have a chance to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.