NFL legend Rob Gronkowski bought $69,000 worth of Apple stock after advice from his contractor. Afterwards, he forgot about it for more than two years.
In 2014, when Gronkowski was playing for the New England Patriots, he was building a 418-square-foot home in Foxborough, Massachusetts, about 20 miles from Boston. The contractor Gronkowski hired gave the then 25-year-old player valuable investment advice.
“Every time I saw him, while we were building the house, he would say ‘Buy Apple. Buy Apple,’” Gronkowski tells Fortune in an exclusive interview alongside Julian Edelman, his former Patriots teammate and current co-host of the “Dudes on Dudes” podcast. “So after the 50th time, I understood. And let me tell you, it’s the best investment I’ve ever made in my life.”
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At the time, Gronkowski, or Gronk as he is known in the football world, was only in the fourth year of his career. While he made millions from NFL contracts and endorsement deals, he was a novice in financial matters.
“I had never been involved in stocks,” says Gronkowski. “I didn’t really know how stocks worked. So I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll do it, man.’”
After advice from the helpful builder, Gronkowski decided to “bet big.” The amount invested was in line with his reputation as an irreverent athlete.
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“Obviously, this has everything to do with me being myself; I’m going to put $69,000 into Apple stock,” says Gronkowski. “So I call my financial advisor. I say, ‘Put $69,000 in Apple.’ My own money, without advice like that, is just from the guy who built my house here in the New England area.”
Gronkowski ended up forgetting he had invested the money until about two and a half years later, he says. When he remembered that he had saved the money, his investment of US$69,000 had more than tripled, reaching US$250,000. He immediately sold a portion of Apple’s shares and kept the rest.
“Now, to this day, I have over $600,000 worth of Apple stock, all because of the investment I made in 2014 without knowing what I was doing, but just listening to the guy who built my house here in New England,” he says Gronkowski.
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Around 2014, the year of Gronkowski’s investment, was a banner year for Apple. The tech giant started the year with a terrible first quarter, making investors fear the company had lost its luster following the death of iconic founder Steve Jobs. In the following quarter, the stock surpassed analysts’ expectations, rose 8% in one day and continued its rise to become the most valuable company in the world. (Earlier this month, Nvidia surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable company.)
Over his 11 seasons in the NFL, Gronkowski earned around $70 million in salary. Despite being known as a party animal, he never spent a penny of his salary, according to his 2015 autobiography “It’s Good to Be Gronk.” Instead, Gronkowski lived off sponsorship money with brands like Dunkin’ Donuts, T-Mobile and USAA.
Now that he’s retired, Gronkowski has several business ventures to keep him busy. He runs a media company, Nuthouse Sports, alongside Edelman, his friend for 15 years, and marketing executive Assaf Swissa, who founded the advertising agency Superdigital. Gronkowski is also a co-investor in a salad restaurant chain called Greenlane with Tory Burch founder J. Christopher Burch.
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But so far, no investment has paid Gronkowski as much as the Apple shares recommended by his contractor.
“Let me tell you, he built my house, and he gave me all my money back by telling me to invest in Apple,” says Gronkowski.
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