NFL's Gronk calls Apple his best-ever investment

Apple has tried — and failed — to invest in the NFL through a deal to secure the Sunday Ticket rights, but now one of the league's most financially astute players reveals he invested in Apple. Rob Gronkowski famously did not spend the millions he earned from his 11-season spell with the NFL, yet he says early on, he made an investment in Apple without any advice.

According to Fortune magazine, it was in 2014 when he was with the New England Patriots. While he had a financial advisor, he also had a man building him a house — and the man would not stop talking about Apple stock.

"Every time I saw him, when we were building the house, he kept saying, 'Get Apple. Get Apple,'" Gronkowski said. "So after the 50th time, I got it. And let me tell you, it's the best investment I've ever had in my life."

"I [had] never been involved in stocks," he continued. "I really didn't know how stocks work."

"So I call up my financial advisor. I'm like 'put $69,000 in Apple'," explains Gronk. "My own money, with no advice like this, is just from the guy who built my house here in the New England area."

Gronkowski says he actually forgot that he had done this, and when he remembered to check two years later, he found he'd done quite well. That initial $69,000 was then worth $250,000.

Perfect timing

That house builder could not have picked a better time to encourage Gronk — and it was a moment that most investors missed out on. Apple had a poor 2013 financially, and it what Bloomberg would call one of the worst blunders in finance, money managers predicted that 2014 would be the same.

Instead, the year saw the unveiling of the Apple Watch, plus strong Mac sales, and a very successful launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. That saw Apple blowing away expectations in its October earnings, after which the cost of shares rose dramatically.

Gronk still owns Apple stock

"Now to this day, I have over $600,000 in Apple stock, all because of the investment I made in 2014 having no idea what I was doing," said Gronkowski, "but just listening to the guy that built my house here in New England."

There's no word on whether the house builder also invested in Apple. But Gronk is happy with his deal.

"Let me tell you, he built my house, and he gave all the money back to me by telling me to invest in Apple," he said.

Separately, Tim Cook has been selling off some of his Apple stock. In October 2024, he sold some $50 million of it.