reacted to Belichick\u2019s<\/a> Hall of Fame denial during Thursday\u2019s appearance on NBC\u2019s \u201cThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s completely just absurd that Coach Belichick was not a first-ballot Hall of Famer,\u201d Gronkowski declared.<\/p>\n
The legendary tight end ran through Belichick\u2019s credentials that would seemingly make him an obvious selection before highlighting the intangible mark the 73-year-old has left on football.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe touched so many lives as well, and he gave so many opportunities to so many different players and coaches to succeed,\u201d Gronkowski said. \u201cI would not be sitting here right next to Jimmy Fallon if it wasn\u2019t for Coach Belichick drafting me in 2010 to the New England Patriots. So, Coach Belichick, thank you for everything you have done. You are a first-ballot Hall of Famer in everyone else\u2019s book.\u201d<\/p>\n
The surprising development may give Patriots fans the chance to celebrate two franchise icons in Canton next year. Gronkowski is first eligible for Hall of Fame induction in 2027, so he and Belichick could get inducted together a year before Brady enters the ballot.<\/p>\n
Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rob Gronkowski was the latest cornerpiece of Bill Belichick\u2019s New England Patriots dynasty to lament his former head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[3851,7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,8567],"class_list":["post-718776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-bill-belichick","tag-football","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-patriots","tag-rob-gronkowski"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115989070817242357","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}