The reigning Super Bowl Champions, the New England Patriots, will soon take the field in defense of their title – an unbelievable overtime victory in Super Bowl 51 – with their eyes set on another trip to the biggest game on Earth. And while the 53 men on the roster approach the season with hopes of adding another ring to their collection, there’s a competition taking place off the field between this tight-knit group. The battlefield is social media – Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – and the prize is the love and adoration of millions of followers.
We examined the social media followings of the New England Patriots to see who commands the largest presence online. Does the Madden 18 cover athlete and Super Bowl 51 MVP Tom Brady get all the love, or is there room to share with players like Rob Gronkowski? Continue reading to see which Patriots player brings the most followers to the social media party.
Brady, Brady, Brady
With over 7 million combined followers on Facebook and Instagram – that’s right, no Twitter account required – Tom Brady is the most followed Patriots player on social media. While he has significantly fewer followers than his wife, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, Brady’s 2.7 million followers on Instagram and 4.4 million followers on Facebook place him on top of New England’s social media depth chart. The 17-year veteran and 199th overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft posts frequent updates about his family, friends, and even when his son schools him in Madden.
The living party and prolific tight end Rob Gronkowski slots in behind Brady as the second most followed Patriot on social media. However, it does take him having profiles on all three networks to get close to No. 12. Besides getting a glimpse into his wild lifestyle, Gronk shows his business savvy with the sponsored content he posts on Instagram. Brands such as Oberto and Tide have made their guest appearances on his account right beside artistic shots of the “Gronk Spike” touchdown celebration.
Rounding out the top three is another member of the Patriots offense, wide receiver Julian Edelman. Although he’ll miss the 2017-18 NFL season due to an injury sustained in the preseason, expect the squirrely Edelman to keep us updated with his progress as he works to make it back onto the field next year. He’s already taken to his social media accounts to share a message thanking fans for their support and assuring us that “tough times don’t last, tough people do.”
#OneMore
In their quest for #OneMore follower and #OneMore Super Bowl win, these New England Patriots will have to put their phones down and their helmets up when the regular season gets under way. If you want to look like Brady, Edelman, and Gronk on social media, do so in the easiest way possible – pick up the best officially licensed New England Patriots and NFL merchandise and apparel at Fanatics.com.
Methodology
For this project, we scraped the social media metrics from each player’s respective Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. All measures (likes and followers) were collected and verified on Sept. 6, 2017.
