During Rob Gronkowski’s Super Bowl media availability Monday, the Tampa Bay tight end was asked about strength and conditioning coach Anthony Piroli and the tight end had a terrific anecdote.
Gronkowski told a story from this past offseason when workouts were being conducted from home since the players could not be at the facilities.
“Oh, man. I tricked (Piroli),” Gronkowski said. “I tricked him a few times (in) those virtual workouts. Those were fun, though, at first. Just seeing the little chart that has all the workouts on it, just doing them all, filming yourself — it was fun for, like, the first week filming yourself, sending the video in, making yourself look good. If you felt like that one wasn’t good, you were like, ‘Oh, I’m going to make myself look good so he thinks I’m doing everything.’
“And then after, like, a week, it was like, ‘Oh, man. I just wish we in person.’ Because every time, I had to film myself and send it in in order to get credit for the workout and stuff. So that was kind of getting a little annoying. But then, I started tricking him. I would bring my shirt out, and then I would bring another shirt out, so when I’m running the sprints, I would film myself, like, 15 times for that session, that workout session. But I would run it in a couple different shirts — because you only had to send in, like, two or three reps — so that when the next time came, I didn’t have to film myself because I already filmed myself running in a different shirt every time on that one day.
“And he doesn’t have a clue to this day that I was tricking him about half the time during those virtual workouts.”
While Piroli probably isn’t thrilled, Gronkowski’s condition wasn’t an issue this year as he went virtually injury-free, playing all 16 games for the first time since 2011.
“I’ve played, what, 19 games. This is the 28th week we’re going on of just straight football, (and I) haven’t missed a practice all year,” Gronkowski said. “Not training camp — nothing. So I just feel good, man. I feel pretty good.”
Gronkowski and the Bucs will take on the Chiefs in the Super Bowl Sunday.
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