New England Patriots: Bill Belichick Chasing History with Signing Dan Gronkowski

Bill Belichick is an interesting man, and no doubt one of the hardest men to understand in sports—which is by design.

If you were asked to describe Belichick, what words would you use? Serious, no-nonsense, winner, hard worker, boring, emotionless and keeps to himself would probably be some of the first to come to mind.

But what about words such as fun and history/record chaser? Do those sound like the Belichick that we know?

No, but despite his boring, serious and emotionless press conferences and persona that do anything but leave this impression, deep down he can really be described by the latter set of words. 

Further evidence of this can be found with his recent signing of Dan Gronkowski, brother of tight end Rob Gronkowski.

Did Belichick see a dearth of tight ends on the depth chart and go pick up the best available? No.

In fact, Belichick had just recently lessened his amount of tight ends, dropping Will Yeatman (among others) who was certainly capable of maintaining a roster spot. In truth, Dan Gronkowski was certainly not the best available tight end on the market after not making the final Bronco's roster.

But where's the fun in picking up the best tight end on the market? To Belichick, that's no fun. Adding another Gronkowski to his roster, that is fun. That makes things interesting, and that leaves room to make history.

As far as Belichick is concerned (although you will never, ever hear this in one of his press conferences), having two brothers on the team gives the opportunity for something special and likely never done before.

Two brothers on the same team scoring a touchdown in the same game.

That would be cool, and more importantly, people would remember it. This may seem out of character for someone like Belichick and may not be his true motives.

But ask yourself these questions: When was the last time someone kicked a dropkick in a game? And who holds the record for the most consecutive seasons with a touchdown pass?

Doug Flutie was the last person to kick a dropkick in a game, and Vinny Testaverde holds the record for most consecutive seasons with a touchdown pass.

Both of these memorable occurrences were because of Belichick—he wanted people to remember when he let Doug Flutie kick the drop kick extra point and he wanted, when people thought of Vinny Testaverde's record, to think of how he helped extend it by giving Testaverde the opportunity to throw that touchdown to Troy Brown.

Soon, when you are asked of the last time two brothers played on the same team in the NFL, you will immediately think of when Bill Belichick signed Dan Gronkowski.

And potentially—even more intriguing—if someone asks you the last time two brothers on the same team scored a touchdown in the same game, you could think of the Gronkowski brothers reaching the end zone in a game this season.

If nothing else, Belichick wants to see Dan and Rob spike the ball in the end zone in the same game and have people remember it.