Rob Gronkowski made a pretty shocking announcement when he retired after winning another Super Bowl with the New England Patriots. The 30-year-old tight end is still in his prime and definitely had quite a few years left of great football in him.
Many believed it would be something that he reversed course on in a month or so. However, a few months in and nothing has changed. In fact, recent photos have shown a much slimmer Gronkowski – leading many to believe he's fully committed to staying retired.
That being said, there's definitely every chance Gronkowski gets restless during the season – and he acknowledged that to Rich Eisen. As Kevin Patra of NFL.com pointed out, the tight end even jokes that the Patriots should call him for the postseason.
While Gronk doubled down on enjoying retirement, he didn't dismiss that the itch to return might pop up during the season.
“There's definitely going to be times when you miss it and everything,” he said. “I would always say that it's still the offseason right now. I mean I can't really say how I'm going to feel about it when the games start rolling around and everything. You know, I just felt like it was time. I feel really good right and it was just definitely something I felt like it was the right time and the right thing to do. To have that load off your back, I mean I've been playing football for 15 years straight in a row of that grind. Just relaxing right now feels good.”
With that opening, Eisen decided to have a little fun with the ever-jovial Gronk.
The host role-played Tom Brady asking the tight end if he would return.
“Thank you, I love you, I miss you, but I'm just relaxin' Tommy,” Gronkowski replied chuckling.
There's no chance? Eisen prodded in his TB12 persona.
“Call me when you get to the playoffs,” Gronk responded, giggling along.
While clearly Gronk was joking around with Eisen about any sort of return, that won't stop Pats fans from keeping their hearts open in case he changes his tune when the weather gets colder.
As you can tell, Gronkowski is in a mostly joking mood. He's not serious about a return at the moment. Finally having some downtime is nice, but once he sees real football happening things might change.
The joke about getting a call for the playoffs is obviously just that – a joke. However, don't count Rob Gronkowski out just yet. He might not be serious now, but we're talking about one of the greatest tight ends of all-time. Hanging it up this early might make that itch to play even bigger.
Follow Us
Subscribe