The Patriots Hall of Fame building at Patriot Place next to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, file photo for coverage of Rob Gronkowski missing the Bill Belichick reunion

Featured photo: The Patriots Hall of Fame at Patriot Place, beside Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, August 2010 (file photo). Photo: Eric Salard, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Rob Gronkowski Says He Regrets Missing Belichick’s Surprise Patriots Reunion for Fox Duties

Rob Gronkowski said this week he regrets missing Bill Belichick's Nov. 7 surprise visit to the Patriots' 2016 reunion because of a Fox show at West Point.

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The Patriots Hall of Fame building at Patriot Place next to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, file photo for coverage of Rob Gronkowski missing the Bill Belichick reunion
Featured photo: The Patriots Hall of Fame at Patriot Place, beside Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, August 2010 (file photo). Photo: Eric Salard, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Rob Gronkowski says he regrets missing the night Bill Belichick made a surprise return to Foxborough. The former Patriots tight end was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame on Saturday, Nov. 7, but spent that evening at West Point for a Fox Veterans Day show instead of at the team’s 2016 reunion party, where Belichick turned up.[1][2]

38th
member of the Patriots Hall of Fame: Gronkowski
10 years
since the 2016 team’s Super Bowl LI win
38-21
Belichick’s UNC win at UConn earlier that day
25+
former players and coaches named at the reunion

Related: Gronkowski Gets His Red Jacket as Brady, Vrabel and 60-Plus Ex-Patriots Join Hall of Fame Ceremony.

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What Gronkowski said

Gronkowski talked about the missed night on the Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams.[1] He said he had to go to West Point to celebrate with the troops for Veterans Day on the Fox show, so he did not get to celebrate with his teammates or his family on Saturday night.[1] He said he had heard many stories about the party and had work the next morning.[1]

“I wish I could have been there, but unfortunately I just couldn’t,” Gronkowski said.[1]

For the Fox segment, Gronkowski appeared before Army cadets in the Army’s new green uniform with a helmet hiding his face, then took the helmet off to reveal who he was.[1]

Belichick’s detour to Foxborough

Belichick was a surprise guest at a reunion dinner for the 2016 Patriots at Davio’s Steakhouse at Patriot Place, MassLive’s Matt Vautour first reported.[2] He had coached North Carolina to a 38-21 win at UConn that afternoon.[2] The weekend marked 10 years since the 2016 team erased the largest deficit in Super Bowl history.[2] That team beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 in Super Bowl LI, the fourth of Belichick’s six Super Bowl titles in New England.[1]

Former players and coaches at the reunion included Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola, James White, Malcolm Butler, Stephen Gostkowski, David Andrews, Patrick Chung and longtime offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia.[2]

In his induction speech, Gronkowski called Belichick the greatest of all time and thanked him for pushing him to play at a high level.[2] Belichick returned the praise after the UNC game, calling Gronkowski the best tight end in football during his era.[2] “We wouldn’t have won as many games as we did without him,” Belichick said.[2]

Tom Brady’s wedding-morning surprise

Tom Brady, in town to call the Patriots-Packers game for Fox on Sunday, also made the trip to Foxborough for Gronkowski’s ceremony.[4] Before he left, he stopped to meet a bride.[3]

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Lauren Andriolo of Watertown, a lifelong Patriots fan, was getting ready for her wedding at The Langham in Boston that Saturday when she learned Brady was staying on the same floor.[3] As Brady was leaving for the induction, a member of his team knocked on her door, and the two shook hands and posed for a photo.[3] She texted the photo, with no message, to her husband-to-be, Nick.[3]

“It was a kind of a pinch me moment,” Andriolo told NBC10 Boston.[3] Her wedding party had 12 members, matching Brady’s old uniform number.[3] The Watertown couple later went on a “mini-moon” in Maine.[3]

What’s next for the Patriots

The current Patriots play the Detroit Lions in Munich on Sunday morning. See the Patriots’ injury report for the Lions game in Munich and our earlier look at Gronkowski’s career as the team’s 80-touchdown leader.

More coverage: Patriots · Boston sports.

Sources

  1. Yahoo Sports (EssentiallySports): “Unfortunately, I Just Couldn’t”: Rob Gronkowski Regrets Missing Bill Belichick at Patriots HOF Reunion for Fox Duties
  2. Boston.com: Bill Belichick reportedly joined Patriots for 2016 reunion dinner in Foxborough
  3. NBC Boston: Boston bride gets surprise visit from Tom Brady hours before her wedding
  4. Boston.com: Tom Brady surprised Boston bride on day of her wedding

About the reporter: Jack Dolan is an AI reporter covering sports for The Boston Report. This article was produced with AI under our editorial policy. Read our AI and media disclosure.

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