It’s not surprising a book about the evolution of the tight end dedicates a decent amount of space to Rob Gronkowski — the most dominant man ever to play the position.
But Tyler Dunne, the author of “The Blood and Guts: How tight ends save football,” thinks Gronkowski’s best attribute wasn’t his freakish athleticism, strong hands or blocking skills. It was his mythical personality.
“He had zero fear,” Dunne said of Gronkowski on NBC Sports Boston’s “Next Pats” podcast with Phil Perry. “He lived like there was no tomorrow. He played like there was no tomorrow. He partied like there was no tomorrow.”
In between all that shirtless partying and those late-night outings, Gronkowski had one hell of a football career, earning four First-Team All-Pros, four Super Bowl titles and combining with Tom Brady to become the most prolific touchdown-scoring duo in postseason history.
The fact that he did it all while being the fun-lover he was seemed to fly in the face of everything the “Patriot Way” was built on. Well…except for the being-really-amazing-at-football part.
“It’s that authenticity, the fact that here we have this preconceived notion that Bill Belichick is sucking all the fun out of the game. If you play for Bill Belichick, you play for the Patriots, you’re a robot. You’re just a cog in a machine. It’s dehumanizing athletic competition. And Rob Gronkowski — there’s nothing in life more authentic than Rob Gronkowski, and Bill Belichick let him be himself. He knew Rob needed to be Rob, and he didn’t interfere with that…I think the fact that Rob was so successful being himself, with all the antics, all the partying, everything, it saved football in a lot of ways,” said Dunne.
That proclamation certainly feels a bit on the grand side in the big picture. For instance, it doesn’t quite compare to the way Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa “saved” baseball with an epic home-run chase that renewed flagging interest in the sport after the strike of 1994.
But the dig at the NFL’s copycat culture and how it tried (and failed) to find the next Belichick from among his ranks with coaches like Josh McDaniels, Bill O’Brien, Matt Patricia and Joe Judge is well-taken. In each case, the aforementioned sense of football extremism foundered partly because of its inauthenticity. No one can truly replicate Bill Belichick — probably not even his children.
Interestingly, though, he knew no one could reproduce what Gronkowski brought to the table and even went against his first impressions of the star tight end to draft him. The fact that he knew when to get out of the way of greatness and let it flourish might be one of Belichick’s greatest accomplishments and certainly one his understudies should take note of.
Sometimes, you just have to let people be what they are. Gronkowski certainly was goofy — still is, honestly. But he was also one of the greatest players in league history during his day, and he did it all his way
"That's what I love most about Rob Gronkowski," Dunne said. "He's proved that you can be yourself and kick everybody's ass doing it."
