Appearing on Tiki & Tierney last week, Rob Gronkowski got into why he returned to the NFL and joined Tom Brady in Tampa Bay.
The tight end said the two never planned on reuniting on another team during their time in New England.
“No, no that actually was really never the case,” he said. “As a player, you always want to see what it’s like somewhere else. [I] thought of that before definitely after playing nine years in the NFL and also thought about it when I came out of retirement. This is an opportunity to go see what it’s like somewhere else, to go see what it’s like in the NFL on another squad. There’s so many players that bounce around on so many different teams. I loved my time in New England, no doubt about it. But it was another opportunity that presented. But no, we never really ever talked about that before. It kind of just happened. [With] my retirement and him hitting free agency, it kind of just lined up like that.”
While all that is true and factored into Gronkowski's decision, perhaps there was another reason -- Gronkowski did not leave the NFL the way he wanted.
“The bottom line, Rob is back in my opinion because of Tom Brady,” Gordy Gronkowski told the Tampa Bay Times. “I mean, Tom called him, and Tom got in his ear, and I’m sure Rob probably didn’t go out the way he wanted to.”
While the Patriots won Super Bowl LIII in Gronkowski's final game, it wasn't his greatest season.
Gronkowski played in 13 games and finished with 47 receptions for 682 yards and three touchdowns. The three touchdowns tied a career-low and the 682 receiving yards were the fewest in a year where he played double-digit games since his rookie season.
He clearly was not himself for much of the year from a physical standpoint, so perhaps that is what his father is talking about when he said he "didn't go out the way he wanted to."
Gronkowski and the Buccaneers are one of the most talked about teams heading into the 2020 season as everyone wants to see how Brady will look with a new team.
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