Bill Belichick had two words for Julian Edelman: “Real cute.”
“He doesn’t have to say a lot of words to let you know he’s very disappointed in you. You feel it,” Edelman told Patriots Wire by phone Thursday in a promotional interview for the company that runs his social accounts, Superdigital.
Edelman put out a video on his social media channels that chronicled an epic moment between the receiver and Belichick. Though the coach is private about his conversations with his players, Edelman shared a story of a night when he ran into a naked Belichick in a hot tub at Gillette Stadium during the late hours of the night. Yikes.
Even later that night, Edelman bumped into Belichick as they were leaving the facility. Edelman, trying to strike up a conversation, asked Belichick how he grinds away at work at this point in his career. Belichick said: “It beats being a plumber. See you tomorrow.”
The story (and Edelman’s video) was everywhere. It went viral.
That’s the closest Edelman has come to getting in trouble for building a social media platform that’s helped him make millions of dollars through his e-commerce brand and Instagram checkout, per Superdigital founder and creative director Assaf Swissa. The social channels have generated 100 million social video views with 6 million followers. Edelman made $2 million off his JE11 brand in 2020 alone, with the social media channels feeding that revenue. He’s done it on a team that’s notorious for stifling players’ individuality, starting with their presence on social media.
