Gronk living dream as decision looms
ATLANTA – Rob Gronkowski avoid the question.
Everyone wants to know if Super Bowl LIII represents the last hurrah for the Patriots’ larger-than-life tight end. With each day, the tally rises.
Asked how many questions regarding his future he has fielded this week, Gronk paused, leaned into the mic, said, “Thirty,” in a drawn-out manner that betrayed uncertainty.
That’s it?
“OK, 50,” he concedes.
What was the answer? “Today I’m a maybe.”
Maybe what? Maybe he’s done? Maybe he’ll return for a 10th season?
Who knows? Nobody, really. And quite possibly, not even Gronkowski.
Gronkowski understands that the repeated questions about his future stem from his having contemplated retirement last offseason.
For now, the only thing he knows with any certainty is on Sunday the Patriots have a shot at winning their sixth Super Bowl since 2002 and the second in three years.
So he has seemingly approached this week with a determination to have as much fun as possible along the way. He has humored entertainment reporters by wearing a sombrero and trying to speak Spanish or discussing his favorite Chick-fil-A order (original chicken sandwich and Oreo milkshake). He has professed his love for the cult classic movie “Varsity Blues” and displayed his famous dance moves. Gronk has even kept Shaquille O’Neal in suspense over whether he’ll attend his pre-Super Bowl party. can’t
It feels like Gronkowski is trying to soak up the extracurricular activity in case this is his last go-round. But in truth, that’s just how Gronkowski approaches every experience.
“Certainly, no one has had MORE fun,” wide receiver Matthew Slater chuckled. “He certainly has his unique way of displaying that fun. He has a unique joy about him, and that’s what we appreciate about him as teammates. No matter what he accomplishes or what he’s done, accolades, he’s always the same old fun-loving Rob, just having a good time playing football.”
This is just Rob Gronkowski living the dream.
And as we hang on his every word, this is us living vicariously through him. Every football fan has dreamed of being that big (a massive 6-6, 268 pounds), that strong, athletic and successful (two Super Bowl wins, five Pro Bowl appearances and numerous regular-season and playoff records). We also feel like Gronkowski approaches the game and life as if he were one of us, living a fairy godmother wish to be a football star for the day.
We find Gronk so refreshing because, like Peter Pan, he has found a way to never grow up.
“Oh, he’s definitely a very large child,” backup tight end Stephen Anderson said. “But in a good way!”
Gronkowski is still the kid from Williamsville, New York (just 20 minutes outside of Buffalo), in a house of five boys, playing everything from football, to basketball, baseball and some in between.
He dreamed of playing pro sports and didn’t care which. He loved them all equally. But Gronkowski remembers the first time he sensed football stardom in his future.
“I was a freshman on the JV team,” he starts, also recalling that even at that age, he was big (6-5, 220). Coaches called a select few up to varsity.
“There was one game left in the season and it wasn’t a championship game,” Gronkowski continued. “It was more of a toilet bowl type of game — hey, that’s just how it was — and I was the kicker, because I was a good kicker on the JV team. I just walk up and toe it and I was the best at the varsity level too . ... I would be the kicker-off-er and just kept running down the field. I was a freshman and I’d just go downfield and make the tackle. And that’s when I was like, ‘All right, I can play varsity next year, and I can do something with this.’ … Just the way I played the game, how I fit, how my body fit, and I loved playing the game the most.”
The size, athleticism and love for the game carried Gronkowski through high school, and college at Arizona, and then to the NFL, where the Patriots made him a second-round pick in 2010. He admits that he didn’t have much detailed football knowledge at that point. But that’s when his respect for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick further ignited his passion to the point where he developed a tireless work ethic that has carried him the rest of the way.
“Every aspect you see of him having fun, that’s him,” Anderson said. “But what you don’t see is how hard he works. He works like he’s the future Hall of Famer that we know that he is. He’s locked in. He’s running his route 100 percent. He’s blocking 100 percent. That’s Rob.”
Guard Shaq Mason agreed. “He’s definitely a perfect example of when it’s time to work, it’s time to work, but he has fun,” Mason said. “Not everybody has great days — except him. You could come in the locker room and might not be feeling it, and then you look at Gronk and he’s feeling it every day, and you decide, ‘You know what? I’ve got this.’ ”
Gronkowski and that big body have delivered many a punishment, but they’ve also sustained a pounding, and he admits “it takes a toll on you,” but he pushes through because he loves the game so much, that he never wants to squander an opportunity.
That’s why in this moment, he hasn’t allowed himself to seriously consider life without football.
“I really haven’t tried to envision that day,” he explained. “This is the biggest game of the year, the season. I’m telling you, that’s all I’m focusing on. We’ve got these long days, eight-hour days, 10hour days. This is the time of the year. I know you want to put all your work in and get ready for the game Sunday. I know you want to put it all out there.”
But a short time later, another reporter comes up, and just as the announcement is made that there’s time for only one more question, in comes the 51st retirement query of the week.