Rob Gronkowski Tribute Blog: What Gronk Meant To Me
- Grant Parry
- Mar 27, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 4, 2019
You’d be lying to say you haven’t thought about Brady’s retirement once over this 20 year dynasty. I like to say that is something I don’t think about but it is impossible to not think about life after Brady, but how much have we thought about life after Gronk? To be completely honest, I haven’t. Even though it has been in talks for months, it is so surreal that we will never see Gronk play again, and that is the worst part. The team will be fine, we always are, but we don’t get to enjoy seeing 87 take the field every season. If you’ve been a sports fan for longer than 5 years you have probably seen a player retire, and even just with the Patriots we have had our fair share of sad moments. This one is just different. This is one of, if not the most sad retirement I have ever been alive to see. There isn’t many Patriots or athlete for that matter who have made such an impact with their career and to a city.
Gronk was a generational player. I don’t know if I have, or ever will see a player as unstoppable as Gronk play the game of football. There was literally never an answer for him. No defender ever figured him out. He was simply unstoppable and was that way until the day he retired. His highlight tapes look like something out of a video game or like a grown man playing with children. As far as non-quarterbacks go, Gronk is the best NFL player I have ever seen hands down. I would honestly put him above Randy Moss or Calvin Johnson. He is definitely the best Tight End of all time and any one who tries to debate it didn’t watch him play.
The best part about Gronk is that he was equally as entertaining on the field as he was off. When he wasn’t bench pressing lineman or hauling in touchdowns, he was being our wild cannon off the field. As a Pats fan we don’t get to see a lot of personality from our players. We are a team full of ignoring the noise and no distractions. Even our quarterback who is a mogul and one of the most famous people in the world, doesn’t let a lot of personality show.
Gronk did though. He never shied away from being himself and was his party boy self off the field in front of cameras. I will seriously miss that as much as the on field play. Gronk saying “Yo Soy Fiesta” or telling everybody to deflate deez nuts is as good as any touchdown he could score.
Between all the touchdowns & Gronk spikes were a whole lot of laughs. Some of our favorite @RobGronkowski moments. pic.twitter.com/XMd4IITlOQ — New England Patriots (@Patriots) March 27, 2019
So when it comes to what Gronk means to me as a fan, it’s everything. Gronk is what every athlete should want to be. He means as much to me as any athlete in my life. He was one of the first jerseys I ever bought, he is a fathead on my wall, and yes I still have my box of Gronk-flakes. The only other athlete I can remember being this sad about leaving is Papi. I think that is the level Gronk is on. If we are making a Mount Rushmore of 21st century Boston Athletes Gronk has to be on there.
I am gonna miss the hell out of him every Sunday and when we play the Steelers I am going to miss having him kill the secondary every single time. There is a million Gronk plays that are incredible but if I had to pick the first one that comes to mind when talking about Gronk it is his Week 10 touchdown against the Giants. We just needed a play and he made it.
There was a reliability factor about him that you don’t find in many players ever. When you needed a play Gronk was there, open or not. Even in his final season, like against Kansas City. He converted two crucial third downs. One in the fourth quarter where he mossed Eric Berry and then when he caught it in traffic in overtime to set us up in the redzone. He had to play his entire career where he would just never get pass interference calls too. I mean just look at this picture. He gets mugged and woulds still be able to make unreal plays.
A post shared by PRZ (@patriotsredzone) on Mar 27, 2019 at 9:03am PDT
I hope Gronk can comeback because I don’t wanna find out what life after Gronk is like, but maybe it is for the best. Gronk is a first ballot hall of famer. He has the most receiving touchdowns in Pats history and he got to go out ontop, a Super Bowl champ, with his last catch being the game winner. No better way to walk away and it is hard to argue that.
So thank you Gronk for everything you have done for New England, this team, and me as a fan. It is heart wrenching that it all has to come to an end but at least we can all say we got to witness it.
A post shared by PRZ (@patriotsredzone) on Mar 25, 2019 at 6:14pm PDT
Comments