Gronk Officially Decides To End It All
Farewell, Gronk. The one good Patriot.
It felt like this was coming for a few seasons now. He seemed to tease at potentially retiring and the injuries were clearly beginning to mount. Gronk wasn’t the inhuman tank he appeared to be for his first few seasons. He was always banged up. Always had something grinding him. Gronk was too beautiful for football and in some ways it is a miracle we had him as long as we did.
He’s obviously a Hall of Famer. I’m actually torn on whether he should be considered the best tight end of all time. I think at his peak he absolutely was. Gronk, when healthy and in full form, was completely and utterly unstoppable. He was one of the single greatest forces of nature I’ve seen play football. He looked like he was built in a lab simply to destroy all these mortal humans around him. The play I always remember is early in this highlight clip, against the Skins. He just drags two defenders for ten yards and breaks free. I think it is fitting that his signature celebration was simply slamming the ball as hard as possible into the turf. Gronk was a fucking monster.
But he was more than that too. He had the hands of a wide receiver and could make acrobatic catches that no sentient tree trunk should be able to pull off. Plus, to top it all off, he was a giant lovable oaf of a man. He didn’t appear to own a shirt. He didn’t appear to have a mean streak in his body until that one time he made the dirty hit against the Bills a couple seasons ago. He was just a big dumb party animal, kind of a peak bro. But he wasn’t even that dumb. I’ve read he took care of his money very well and he’s probably set for life. Gronk is a damn legend.
Gronk is a case of short career, incredible heights. A Gayle Sayers of tight ends. He wasn’t around that long (comparatively speaking) but at his peak was absolutely unquestionably the best. It’s going to be hard to find arguments against him being the best right now because we are all in post-career fawning mode with lots of recency bias, but he still has a solid argument simply for those peak years. I personally put him #2 next to Tony Gonzales. If Gronk had more healthy seasons and more longevity, he would have made that a tougher choice. Tony simply reinvented the position and then played at that peak level for an obscene amount of time. Gronk didn’t really change the position, he was simply such a rare force of nature that he couldn’t be matched and likely wont because physical monsters like him aren’t very common. I don’t think he will ever be topped in that regard.
Even us Patriot haters will miss you, Gronk. You brought fun to the most stuffy team in the sport. You brought smiles to our faces, and I’m honestly glad you got to go out a champion, making one of the few important and amazing plays in that garbage-ass Super Bowl. You shall always be the fiesta.
He should have a great retirement. Hasn’t touched a penny of his NFL money, is still relatively young, and is in a serious relationship.
Oh, he’s definitely a HOFer, that’s for sure. Probably the only offensive Patriot who played with Brady and won rings who deserves that honor.
The question that should be asked, I think, is whether he’ll be in Canton first-ballot. Given the pretty weak retirement list for this year so far, I think he’ll be getting that as well.
For sure HoFer. No one dominated from the tight end position like Gronk at his peak. NOT a first ballot HoFer because the world only got so much peak Gronk. Between injuries and early retirement, he’s missing about 4-5 years of production to be a first ballot HoFer.
Take what I say with a grain a salt, however. I don’t think that Terrell Davis deserves to be in the HoF. He had 4 amazing years, and 4 shit years does not add up to a Hall of Fame career to me.
I feel like there are two kinds of HoFers. The longevity types and the very high peak over a short time types. I think the short term ones are always kinda questionable because they didn’t last that long. I agree that TD might not belong. I don’t think most people outside of Broncos fandom even remember the guy. If your legacy wasn’t strong enough to be remembered roughly a decade and a half later, it’s a questionable induction.
That said Gronk was around long enough and he made enough of an impact to make it in. He’ll probably be first ballot unless the competition is stiff.
I think Gronk is closer to a Jim Brown or Barry Sanders type of career, where it was relatively short, but he was so consistently dominant from beginning to end that it doesn’t matter.
I see your point but I prefer a few transendant seasons and memorable play (Marshawn Lynch) over staggering consistency (Frank Gore, of whom I cant remember a single play). If you have at least 3 seasons in your career where people consider you top 2 or 3 at your position you have a case at least.
Remeber back in 2011 when there was actually a debate between him and Jimmy Graham? Like, Graham actually ranked higher on NFL top 100 that year. It’s really weird to think the Saints effectively flipped him for a solid starting Center (used the first round pick on someone that only played in 12 games) but totally won that trade.
I was expecting “Your soul is mine!” somewhere in the comic but alas.
I think the Grappolo trade proved that Brady is immune to Bellichick’s soul drain powers.
Belichick is probably allergic to avocados….
really thought the big reveal would be that muffins was actually the consumer of souls all along
Who’s to say that muffins isn’t the puppetmaster pulling the strings. Never forget, Belichick once coached the Browns to no avail and he never won a single game while he was the coach of the Jets (semantics, right?).
He was the last Browns coach to win a playoff game, and they were 5-5 and in contention in 1995 before Modell pulled the rug out.
Gronks corpse is still there I think Muffins eats that as nutrition
In honor of Gronk’s retirement, I wish to link the greatest play Gronk was ever a part of: https://youtu.be/mBqNRx6O8lk
He would at least appreciate it being a 69-yard play.
Dave you absolutely HAVE to do a comic about this batshit story:
https://www.patspulpit.com/2019/3/27/18283613/detroit-lions-coach-matt-patricia-hilarious-story-new-england-patriots-rob-gronkowski-retirement
Its posited as a funny Gronk story, but its really more of a Matt Patricia is a moron story. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (which Patricia claims to be) to know what a bad idea it was.
Patricia has never claimed to be a rocket scientist, that is purely a media creation.
I said it wrong. Meant for more of a Truman Capote don’t let the truth get in the way of a good slander, not to attribute it to him personally. That said, he still threw a trash can at Gronk’s knees during practice.
Gronk was always my favorite Patriot until he tried to sever Tre-Davious White’s spine on one of the worst late hits I’ve ever seen in the many years I’ve been watching football. The man was very clearly down, out of bounds, had already been touched by another Pat. Then Gronk coils and launches his entire body at his neck. He absolutely could have killed him on a deliberate late hit. Simply disgusting and unforgivable.
I’ve come to recognize that I’m in the minority here, but I simply don’t understand how anyone can support him after that. Such a damn shame too, because he was always the very best Patriot and the only player worth rooting for as a non-fan.
Tre-Davious White was hitting Gronk below the knees as well as holding him the entire game. Gronk had never done this before or after again. If you are holding this one incident against him in his 9 year career and not looking into your own house, then shame on you. Better hope you never step a toe out of line.
what often gets missed when talking about gronk and his peak is that he could ALWAYS block, even later when he’d accumulated some injuries, it was like having an extra linesman. gonzales, as great as he was, basically played as a WR for much of his later career.
now he can star in the film adaptation of a Gronking to Remember.
farewell sweet prince…
Goodell will probably hire a hit man after Brady.