Rob Gronkowski Throws Subtle Jab at Bill Belichick's Super Bowl Preparation

Former NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski won four Super Bowls in his career, and one stands out more than the others.

Gronkowski won Super Bowls XLIX, LI (he did not play in the game due to injury), and LIII with the New England Patriots and Super Bowl LV with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He lost Super Bowl XLVI and LII with the Patriots.

During an appearance on the “4th and South” podcast with Jarvis Landry and Leonard Fournette, Gronkowski claimed the 2020 Buccaneers had the best skillset out of any team he won a Super Bowl with.

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Gronkowski also took a subtle jab at former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, suggesting his coaching staff would get nervous and make tweaks to the gameplan during preparation, something former Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians didn’t do when getting ready to face the Kansas City Chiefs.

“What I loved about our gameplan was that we had total confidence in it,” Gronkowski said, via the Buccaneers. “It wasn’t like we would practice it on that Tuesday leading up to the game and then Wednesday comes and we are getting worried, ‘Oh, if this guy comes, we are going to change this up. You are going to flare out here.’

“I have been a part of Super Bowl runs where we started scrambling late in the week and it is, ‘Let’s just stick to our gameplan.’ We really stuck to our gameplan and it was the same exact script that we were working on for two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl and we executed those plays like we did the whole time that we were practicing.”

Gronkowski said the team found their rhythm during practice, and the Buccaneers knew they would handle the Chiefs.

And they did. Tampa Bay blew out Kansas City 31-9.

While Arians stuck to the game plan, it’s hard to argue with the way Belichick prepared his teams for the Super Bowl. He went 6-3 in the Super Bowl as a head coach, and his defensive strategy in the Patriots’ 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII doesn't get enough attention.

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This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 5:22 PM.