Did Gronk Low Key Confirm Returning For Another Season on Jimmy Fallon?
The number one topic for the Patriots offseason this spring will probably revolve around whether or not Rob Gronkowski will be returning to the team next season, or retiring. Gronk has been a fan favorite since he entered the league and we know
Has he been hurt? Yeah. But up until this season, if he was on the field, he was a MACHINE. He’s also just been electric to watch and follow off of the field. Remember that cruise/party he threw? That thing still makes zero sense to me how all of that went down. Gronk is a legend.
But last night on Jimmy Fallon, did Gronk let it slip that he’s going to decide to play at least another season? Oh baby, do we got ourselves a clip that we’re going to look way too far into.
Gronk says juking and dodging beers at the Patriots parade was “good practice for next season” 👀 pic.twitter.com/pkhTyF7vdd
— Adam London (@_adamlondon) February 7, 2019
I saw this clip last night and honestly didn’t even catch or think about his mentioning of next season. I was so in on the story about him taking a beer can to the face because it is still WILD to me how dumb some of these people are for throwing beer at the players while they aren’t looking.
Didn’t we learn from our last championship parade from a few months ago you morons? Make eye contact with the player, and then toss. I know these guys were slugging the beers if they caught them but still, come on.
Honestly, all year long I was screaming that there’s no chance he returns after this season. He looked beat up and just slow. Basically dead. Nothing like the guy that we’ve seen over the years. He looked COOKED. But, then after the Super Bowl is where the speculation began. Tom Brady dropped his usual postgame Instagram video because he’s trendy AF and it had himself and Gronk shrugging.
Are we going to look to far into that too? Buddy, you KNOW we’re going to. I took that as, “Will Gronky be back? Maybe. I don’t know. Who knows?”. So, sure, now that we see that video you need to start speculating a little bit, right?
And then when the reports come out that Gronk did suffer a bulging disk in his back and tendonitis in his Achilles, it started to make sense why he was looking like a shell of himself.
Reportedly he didn’t feel like himself again until week 15. If you look at his numbers, he started to get back into pretty solid form in the postseason. He had 87 yards on six receptions in the Super Bowl, and 79 on six receptions in the AFC Championship game. Those aren’t any significant numbers that are classic Gronk, but they at least showed some type of semblance to his past self, right?
Realistically, I don’t think this video means anything. It was probably just a slip-up when he said “next season” and meant nothing. BUT I think it does at least show that he hasn’t completely made up his mind yet which means the possibility of his return is still there. I’m at about 50/50 on if I think Gronk comes back for the 2019 season.
There were just points where he looked absolutely done but, the fact that we know there was an injury does change my perspective on the situation a little bit at least.
The guy does have to worry about his future a ton though overall and with all of these injuries piling up year after year, as much as it would suck from a fan’s perspective, I think it would be the smart move if he retires. At some point you just need to think about your quality of life post football and if anyone’s body has taken the most punishment it can, it’s probably Gronk’s.
-Nick Quaglia (@NickQuag)