Tough Enough
Rob Gronkowski is in pain. The four-time Super Bowl champ, a bruising tight end who once mowed down opponents with ease and charmed fans with his enthusiasm and energy, is not feeling well on this chilly evening in Los Angeles. The agony has nothing to do with football. It’s his ears: One of his eardrums is severely inflamed, the other has actually ruptured, victims of abrupt pressure changes on a recent flight. He’s been hurting for hours but there’s work to be done. Tomorrow morning he’ll be on the air, talking football for Fox. Right now he’s sitting with a smile on his face, patiently sharing stories about his life.
Gronk is a man who knows how to endure discomfort. “It’s nothing new. I was playing with ruptured lungs and a ruptured back,” the 35-year-old says with a chuckle. He’s tall, the tallest guy in most rooms, with a muscular build that’s leaner than it was during his playing days. “I’m like ah, I gotta do it again. I don’t want to do it again, but I know how to do it. I just tell myself life will be even better once the pain goes away.”
Smiling through such pain is alien to most people, but it’s just part of Gronkowski’s DNA. He played 11 years in the NFL (nine with the New England Patriots, two with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and he endured more than his share of painful hits. “Earl Thomas hit me and he punctured my lung and knocked the disc out in my back,” he says, rather nonchalantly, between bites of roasted branzino. “I was bleeding out of my mouth, actually finished the game. That one hurt.”
Usually, Gronkowski was the one istering the pain. When he moved down the field, six-foot-six and an eerily athletic 265 pounds, people who got in his way often ended up on the turf. “Like a runaway truck,” the play-by-play announcer Al Michaels once said of Gronk’s moves during a game. The analyst and former NFL receiver Cris Collinsworth called him one of the top tight ends in the game. “He can block and he can make some brilliant catches . . . they cannot match up with Rob Gronkowski.”
If there’s one play that defines Gronk’s grit, it’s the 2011 game against Washington, his second year in the league. He catches a 10-yard , goes to the ground untouched, then scrambles up and is soon within the clutch of two Washington defenders. But he doesn’t stop—instead he begins to drag both men with him downfield. After about seven yards, he sheds both and tears down the sidelines, stumbling, stretching, gaining yard after yard. When they finally bring him down, he’s inside the opponent’s 15 yard line for a gain of nearly 50 yards.
“Keep in mind, what we just witnessed was executed by a guy who is six-six, almost 270 pounds,” the announcer says. “You wonder why New England—and I mean all of New England—has fallen in love with the Gronk.” That energy, that drive, it’s what made Gronkowski a star.
His numbers certainly impress: Gronkowski is considered a shoo-in for the NFL Hall of Fame. He has more receiving touchdowns than any other Patriot in history, the third most among any tight end ever, and he is the record holder for both receiving touchdowns by a tight end in a season (17) and total touchdowns in a season (18). He has four Super Bowl rings, three with the Pats, one with Tampa Bay. The accomplishments are even more impressive given his relatively short career. His take-no-prisoners approach led to several injuries, including broken ribs and a broken forearm (more than once), concussions, torn ACL and MCL, and back surgery, not to mention the punctured lung. He played only 143 games in his career, fewer than any other tight end high atop the career leaderboard.
“Gronk was an incredible teammate,” says Tom Brady, widely considered the top quarterback of all time, with seven Super Bowl rings. Brady was quarterback for Gronk’s entire career. “I’ve played with very few people who were willing to leave it all on the field like he was,” he says. “He led by example with everything that he did, and he made those around him, including myself, better. His athletic ability, strength and intellect as a player made him the perfect pairing for me as a quarterback. As amazing as he was on the field, he is an even better person and I’m excited to be teammates again with him at Fox. I’m grateful to call him my friend.”
Football can be a confusing sport, and the tight-end position is harder to understand than others. It’s pretty easy to tell a lineman from a receiver. Linemen are the giants on the field, massive individuals who might weigh 300 pounds or more, huge men who try to push other huge men aside. Receivers, on the other hand, tend to be tall and relatively slender, speedsters who tear down a field and leap to make dramatic catches.
Imagine tight ends as blends of both. They traditionally would line up at scrimmage, tight to an offensive lineman—the origin of the name—but in the modern-day game they may set up farther out, like a wide receiver, or in the backfield like a running back, even go into motion. On some plays, they act as blockers, so they need to be strong. On other plays, they are targets for the quarterback, so they need good hands and a bit of speed. Above all, they ought to be tough.
In a league of tough players, Gronkowski stood out. His gladiator’s attitude was forged in the crucible of his home, a house in a Buffalo, New York suburb filled with five athletic boys and overseen by a father who played Division One football in college.
“My toughness was built, my grit was built, in the backyard. My childhood is what got me ready for my football career. I have three older brothers, one younger brother, so I was always competing against kids who were older than me,” says Gronkowski. “I took a beating all the time. My brothers were always beating on me, my brothers’ friends were always beating on me, but there was never one instance where I backed down.”
Gronkowski was a big kid, but when he was six he was battling against 10 year olds, so he was at a disadvantage. “That was a huge difference. I had to step up my game. I was always competing . . . My parents just let it go, because it got too intense, there were so many of us. They just let it go and just waited till we wore each other out . . . I feel like that’s what built my mentality of toughness.”
Gronkowski isn’t complaining about his upbringing—he loved it. “We had the best household growing up of all time, I firmly believe that,” he says. The roughhousing with his brothers turned him into a fierce competitor, and it helped the others too. All four of his brothers played pro sports, three of them in the NFL, one in Major League Baseball. “My whole goal with these guys was to get them a free education,” Gronkowski’s father has said. He estimates that he saved about $750,000 because all of his boys got athletic scholarships.
None of them have matched Rob’s level of success, and none of them matched his level of mischief either. All those hits from his brothers? Rob its he had them coming. “I was a troublemaker,” he says with his charismatic smile. “My dad said I would start so many fights with my brothers that I would deserve all the poundings I got.” One fight ended up with a fork stuck in the hand of a babysitter who tried to break up a fight. (Rob threw it at his brother Dan.) Justice in the Gronkowski household was simple, and not always effective. When one of his older brothers reached the breaking point, he would pound young Rob’s legs. “Throw 15 charley horses on my legs to the point where I couldn’t walk,” he says. But then he would go back and start the trouble again.
Rob’s combination of athleticism, toughness and size made him a fit for many sports, and for a time in high school he played hockey, basketball, baseball and football. “I was definitely the biggest in my class usually, all the way through high school.”
Imagine you’re a parent, watching your kid play high school sports, and on the other team is a young, wild and absolutely huge Rob Gronkowski. “In high school, I was a maniac blocking. I was getting penalties ’cause I would drive guys 10 yards down the field,” he says. “I blocked some guys over the fence. I played like that in basketball too.”
Football being his best fit, he started focusing on that sport. “I always knew I was a football player. And I knew I had a chance at going pro even when I was a sophomore in high school.” He was recruited by Penn State, Clemson and others, and decided on the Arizona Wildcats. His college career started off great, but his NFL dreams were nearly derailed by a back injury. “My back is always vulnerable because of my height, and I was lifting tons of heavy weights in college with no clue about form. It was just about tossing it up. I wasn’t really taking care of myself on the weekends either,” he says. “And my back started hurting and my legs went numb. It was a bulging disc right on the nerve.” After trying to muscle through he finally got an MRI and then surgery. He went under the knife, missing most of his junior season, then he went into the NFL draft, skipping his senior year.
The Patriots grabbed him early in the second round (“My dream come true,” he says) and Gronkowski was now part of the mighty Patriots, with Brady at quarterback, Bill Belichick as head coach and three recent Super Bowl wins to their credit. But Gronk didn’t become an overnight star. “I was only playing 20 plays a game my first eight games ’cause they didn’t trust in me.” His nemesis was the Belichick playbook, which proved far tougher to master than what he learned in college. “The playbook was the most intense playbook I’ve ever seen. It was a lot. And it’s hard to pick up.” The coaches would only put him in on the plays he ran correctly in practice. Gronkowski understands why. “You’re putting someone’s life in your hands on the football field. If that running back, that quarterback, they know they’re going to get smacked on one out of two plays ’cause you block the wrong guy, then they’re going to put someone in who might have less talent than you but at least he’s gonna block the right guy and slow him down. Week nine came and that playbook just clicked,” he says. “From week nine on I played every single play.”
He gelled with his team. “He’s the most genuine person you know,” says Julian Edelman, one of Gronkowski’s teammates from the Patriots and a longtime friend. “He’s always happy.” Said coach Belichick while Gronk was on his team: “I have tremendous respect for Rob and the way he goes about his job. Rob always has a great energy and enthusiasm for the games.”
Enthusiasm is a word you hear often with Gronkowski, who celebrated just about every touchdown with a monstrous spike of the ball. He also got a reputation for continuing the celebration off the field. Belichick occasionally groused. “He threw a couple of jabs at me at practice. ‘Oh, are you sweating out all that booze from the weekend that I saw you do?’ And I’d be like ‘Yeah, I am actually and it’s kind of tough right now. But it’s all coming out and I’ll be good tomorrow.’ He let it be, because I was just genuinely being myself and I was showing up.”
That party-hearty nature and his jocular personality makes some people think of Gronkowski as a stereotypical jock, someone to do shots with rather than engage in a serious discussion. But there’s a lot more going on in that skull than headbutts. All NFL prospects are given a litany of tests, most of them physical, but there’s also the Wonderlic, a cognitive test. Offensive linemen tend to score the highest, followed closely by quarterbacks, with 50 being a perfect score. A handful of people have scored in the single digits, and the NFL average is 24.1. Tom Brady scored 33 on his Wonderlic, above average for a quarterback. Gronkowski scored 32. He’s also a former member of the National Honor Society, and there are reports he aced his SAT score as well.
“That’s how it’s been my whole life,” says Gronkowski. “People think ‘he’s not smart or whatever.’ ” He shrugs his broad shoulders. “I always play along with it. I’m like, OK, I’ll use that to my advantage. I don’t care.” He cracks that easy grin. “Undersell, over deliver—that’s always been my motto.”
Gronkowski no longer catches touchdown es. He retired (for the second time) in June 2022. But he’s keeping busy. He and his family own Gronk Fitness, and he’s also part of Ice Shaker. Created by his brother Chris, it’s a line of high-end protein shakers that appeared on “Shark Tank.” (Rob Gronkowski bought out the stake Alex Rodriguez took on the show, and then got involved in FitPlan, a company owned by Rodriguez.) He’s also involved in apparel (BYLT Basics), he has a salad restaurant venture (Greenlane) and does a podcast.
His most high-profile gig keeps him especially busy during football season. As a part of “Fox NFL Sunday,” he does a variety of things, including jumping out of planes and helicopters. But on this particular Sunday morning, he’s in a checkered blue suit, sitting at the corner of the desk preparing for when the cameras come on so he can discuss football with the rest of the crew.
Being on TV makes him nervous, just like he got before he played football. “I was nervous all the way through my career.” He its to having to run to the bathroom before each game, and having the same visceral reaction before going on the air each week. “I don’t think that ever goes away with players. You still get those nerves. One coach always told me my rookie year: if you’re nervous you’re ready. I was like oh, I appreciate that. I’m nervous as heck.”
He’s surrounded by veterans on the show: Terry Bradshaw, Michael Strahan, Howie Long, Curt Menefee and Jimmy Johnson. “The guys who are around me are such pros that if you do get nervous, they’re there to pick you up. I look at them and I feel like they don’t get nervous,” says Gronkowski.
Between takes, the cast is moving in and out, getting ready for showtime. A box of Ashton VSG cigars is on hand, being ed out to the many cigar smokers on the show. Strahan happily takes a few, as does Bradshaw. “You’re writing a piece on Gronk?” Bradshaw asks. “Make sure you put down that I write all of his copy!” He cackles and heads toward the desk.
Gronkowski doesn’t puff as many cigars as Bradshaw, but he likes to light up. “I smoke cigars on occasion,” he says. “It’s always for a celebration. I smoke around my friends.” He was just in Baha Mar in the Bahamas, and lit up Cubans with his buddies. He also made it a ritual to light up after each of his Super Bowl wins. “We always had them,” he says, “If we’re just chilling at home. Let’s have a cigar and a drink. When I’m with my buddies, when we’re chilling at the house and we don’t go out, we smoke a cigar. It relaxes me. A good celebration has to have a cigar.”
So which teams does Gronkowski think might be ready to light up their own victory smokes in February? “The AFC, I feel like it’s going to be between Baltimore, Kansas City and the Buffalo Bills,” he says in November. “On the other side, we got the Lions. I really like the Lions . . . I feel like everyone’s cheering for them. Everything about their team and how they play. And they’ve never won before.” He’ll be in New Orleans as part of the pre-game show for the Super Bowl, which airs on Fox.
And will there be a voice in his head, calling him back to the field? Will he ever go back? “I’m done man,” he says, simply. “There’s definitely parts where you miss it, and there’s definitely days where you wake up and you feel really good that day and you’re watching the game and you’re like, man I could still go.” Those thoughts, he says, are fleeting. “Then the next day, it’s Monday and you’re watching Monday Night Football, and you’re like ‘what was I thinking?’ ”
