At one point, retired New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski was arguably the best-skilled position player in the entire NFL.
He wasn’t just the best tight end in all of football, but second place was miles behind him and there’s no doubt he has supplanted himself on the Mount Rushmore of his position.
But while there is chatter that Rob Gronkowski could come out of retirement for one last go in the NFL, he just gave a huge indicator that he will return this season.
A lot of people think that the most un-coverable tight end of a generation, Rob Gronkowski, walked away from football so he could party, become a pro wrestler and/or possibly dabble in making the leap to movies.
If you thought that you may be right about him wanting to do all the aforementioned but it was really about the injuries; specifically about the one he sustained during Super Bowl LIII earlier this year.
Gronkowski attended a conference for CBDMEDIC oils and when he was asked about Andrew Luck’s sudden retirement, he related. We always think we have an idea of how players bulldoze through their injuries, but we don’t necessarily understand the gravity of their injuries.
How could we?
During the Super Bowl, Gronkowski was hit in the upper thigh and limped off the field. He came back, however, and was able to finish the game.
He said, “I got done with the game, I could barely walk. Now I can barely walk. I’m at the after-party, I sit down and I’m just chilling all day, like the rest of the night until 3 a.m. I try to go to bed, I slept for five minutes that night. I couldn’t even think. I was in tears, in my bed, after a Super Bowl victory.”
Gronkowski then explained that he suffered severe internal bleeding in his quad. Two weeks after the Super Bowl, he had 200 ml of blood removed from the leg, then another 500 ml a week after that, then another 300 ml. In total, Gronkowski had a liter of blood removed.
The New England Patriots absolutely slaughtered the Pittsburgh Steelers in week one and they looked as good as we’ve ever seen them before; including the infamous undefeated 2007 Patriots team (until they lost in the Super Bowl).
Then they got star wide receiver Antonio Brown and with the new rape accusations against him and his notoriously volatile behavior, who knows what’s in stock for his future.
Gronkowski visited Barstool Sports recently and they asked him as he was about to leave when he would come back this season.
This is what he said:
It’s official. @RobGronkowski will be back on the @Patriots week 14. His words. Not mine. pic.twitter.com/uPxzoTLZsv
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 9, 2019
But was this in jest or would he really consider returning?
The most probable indication is that he will even after he revealed on Thursday that Gronkowski has had over twenty concussions and five blackouts in his short career thus far.
Here’s what he told CBSN:
.@RobGronkowski told CBSN’s @reenaninan that he’d let his son play football ––only after educating him about what he went through in the game.
He said he had about “nine surgeries, probably had 20 concussions” playing football. https://t.co/CYw25maOgo pic.twitter.com/dltWn6Y4k2
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 12, 2019
But he does say, “I needed to recover. I was not in a good place. Football was bringing me down, and I didn’t like it. I was losing that joy in life.”
Maybe he’ll just have to wait and see how the Patriots fair come week 14 then.