Welcome to the NFL 100, The Athletic’s endeavor to identify the 100 best players in football history. You can order the book version here. Every day until the season begins, we’ll unveil new members of the list, with the No. 1 player to be crowned on Wednesday, Sept. 8.
Rob Gronkowski was a different breed from the moment he walked through the doors at Gillette Stadium in the spring of 2010.
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And took a nap.
On the floor.
In a $1,500 suit.
During his pre-draft visit.
The New England Patriots were well aware of the entire Gronk experience before selecting him in the second round of the draft. They recognized the immense talent and potential along with the unique personality that would surely stick out in Foxboro.
It has all come to roost during his nine seasons with the Patriots and another year-plus with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So far, Gronkowski is a four-time Super Bowl champion and four-time First-Team All-Pro who ranks 11th all time among tight ends with 566 receptions, sixth with 8,484 yards and third with 86 touchdowns.
He’s done it the Gronkulean way, without too much need to cater to cookie-cutter expectations, and that’s part of what made him special.
During a meeting at the combine, Gronkowski professed his love of “SpongeBob” to former Patriots director of college scouting Jon Robinson. Then during his visit to Gillette, while awaiting a meeting with three coaches, Gronk folded up his suit jacket into a pillow and fell asleep on the floor outside director of scouting administration Nancy Meier’s office.
“The initial visits left something to be desired,” said Brian Ferentz, who was the Patriots assistant tight ends coach at the time. “His best qualities — it’s like any interaction you’ve ever had with Rob — always find a way to shine through. It’s why he’s a charismatic guy. He can’t help it. He’s a terrible poker player. He can’t lie. He can’t deceive. One thing you learn from day one (with the Patriots) is it’s not about what somebody is doing — it’s what they can do.
“With Rob, yeah, there was a leap of faith. But then you go through the draft process and get to know him, you’re around him a little bit, you bring him in. He is who he is. That’s not an act. That’s not a show. I do think he is a character, and I do think he knows he’s a character. I always say that Rob is dumb like a fox. He plays up certain aspects of his personality for effect, but it’s not an act. It’s genuine. It’s who he is. But he is much smarter than he leads on. When you’re around him for an extended period of time, you get a sense of that.
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“The one thing that came shining through — he was a good kid. He was a good person. He had a good head on his shoulders. He had good values.”
Gronkowski scored 20 touchdowns by his 26th game — a record-setting pace for a tight end — and that night highlighted another side of his portfolio. In a 34-3 blowout victory against the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football, Gronk leaped past linebacker Derrick Johnson’s low tackle attempt, flipped into the Gillette Stadium end zone and awkwardly landed on the side of his head, twisting his neck in squeamish fashion and requiring a concussion test on the sideline.
It was both his national coming-out party and a reminder of a hulking menace of a performer who had back surgery at the University of Arizona and would constantly be under even more duress due to his physicality.
Gronkowski was asked that week if he would ever consider changing his style of play to preserve his body.
“I’m blessed that I’m fine from it and everything,” Gronkowski said, “but I definitely don’t feel like I’m going to change anything.”
Even as the surgeries mounted — nine so far in his career — Gronk’s style undeniably worked. He set a positional record with 18 total touchdowns in 2011, tore his ACL in 2013 but had the second-best season of his career in 2014 when he had 82 catches, 1,124 yards, 12 touchdowns and was an on-field blocker for all 17 of their touchdown runs, including the playoffs. Gronk also caught a touchdown pass in each of the Patriots’ three postseason victories on their way to a title in Super Bowl XLIX.
“When it comes time to determining how good he was compared to the history of the game,” former New York Giants tight end Mark Bavaro once said, “you’re going to have to remember the little things that he did — the fact that he could get open, the fact that he could catch balls with people on him, the fact that everybody in the world is trying to stop him and they couldn’t.
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“He’s not just catching balls when nobody is looking or when someone is focused on something else or it’s a trick play. He is catching balls when everybody knows they’re going to throw to him. He’s catching balls when it’s third-and-5, and everyone says, ‘Just make sure Gronkowski doesn’t catch a ball,’ and he still does with two or three guys on him.
“He is that star running back from back in the 1980s and ’90s. He is that star receiver, that Jerry Rice and Randy Moss of his day back in the ’90s and early 2000s. He is that premier offensive weapon. He is 6-foot-6, 265 pounds, and in a good way, he’s a big goof. This is the guy the offense is built around for the most part. To be that integral of a player on offense today at tight end means you are unbelievable. I can’t stress that enough.”
And then there was the personality, which was as large as it was genuine. He carried the party-boy reputation from Tucson to the NFL, twerked, spiked beer cans and never passed up an opportunity for a goofy joke.
In the week leading into Super Bowl XLIX, Gronk was asked why he partied so hard, and he replied without missing a beat, “Because I’m a baller.” His teammates repeated that line every chance they got.
They adored Gronkowski because they knew his personality was real and essentially harmless. He was a big kid who just wanted to have fun with his friends.
Gronkowski famously kicked Indianapolis Colts safety Sergio Brown “out the club” by blocking him through the end zone during a 2014 regular-season victory, but there was another moment that flew way under the radar. After his wild 26-yard touchdown, Gronk stormed back to the sideline out of breath, eyes popping out of his skull, shrieking like a hyena and yelling at anyone who would listen.
“How did I do that?”
“Did you guys see what I did?”
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“Did it look cool?”
Gronkowski wasn’t as dominant over the second half of his career due to the injury toll, but he was still a force in the biggest moments. He caught nine balls for 116 yards and two touchdowns in a Super Bowl LII loss to the Philadelphia Eagles then six for 87 yards, including a 29-yarder to set up Sony Michel’s game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LIII. After a one-year retirement, Gronkowski reunited with Tom Brady in 2020 and the pair connected six times for 67 yards and two scores in a Super Bowl LV for Tampa.
There isn’t enough room on the Internet to run through every other big play or performance of his career.
“There’s no doubt in my mind Rob Gronkowski is the greatest to ever play that position,” Ferentz said.
Gronk won’t sniff Tony Gonzalez’s positional record of 1,325 catches for 15,127 yards. He has a remote opportunity to make a charge for Antonio Gates’ 116-touchdown mark.
The greatness of Gronkowski won’t be defined so much by those numbers. Rather, he won unlike any great tight end in history. His dominance at the position in his era was unmatched.
“I guess he’s a throwback, but I hate that it’s being called a throwback now when it’s actually the definition of the position,” Gonzalez once said. “You’re supposed to block, and you’re supposed to catch. It’s frustrating, but I guess that’s me being nostalgic and old school, being that old, disgruntled man like, ‘Back in my day, you had to block, and we had to walk 20 miles to school.’ That’s the way the position is going, so I love the tight ends who can come in and both block and catch because it helps (the team).”
A modern-day throwback, there was only one Gronk.
And yeah, it looked cool.
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; photo: Mark Brown / Getty Images)
