Though football grew to be his bread and butter, Rob Gronkowski played hockey throughout his youth in Williamsville, New York (located just outside Buffalo), once claiming to have scored as many as nine goals in one game.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end recently had a chance to lace 'em up with the Tampa Bay Lightning — last year's Stanley Cup champion — joining brothers Dan and Glenn Gronkowski on the ice at Amalie Arena for an impromptu shootout.
Showing noticeable rust, Gronkowski was stonewalled on each of his attempts, failing to sneak one past Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. There's no shame in being vanquished by a Vezina Trophy winner (awarded annually to the league's top goaltender), though judging by his relative uneasy skating, the Pro Bowler should probably stick to his day job as Tom Brady's go-to red-zone target.
Gronkowski, who says he stopped playing hockey in ninth grade, also tried his hand between the pipes, standing in net against forwards Steven Stamkos, Alexander Killorn and Patrick Maroon. The 32-year-old, again, looked pretty stiff, though by virtue of his sheer enormity, the 6-foot-6, 265-pound Gronkowski did luck into a handful of saves.
Gronkowski gave professional wrestling a whirl during his short-lived retirement in 2019, and has also teased a post-football boxing career, but hockey doesn't appear to be in his wheelhouse. Not that it wouldn't be fun to see Gronkowski throw hands with NHL enforcers like Zdeno Chara and Radko "The Butcher" Gudas.
As for the Lightning, they ended up dropping Game 3 of their first round series with the Florida Panthers on Thursday night, 6-5 in overtime. However, Tampa Bay still holds a 2-1 series lead with Game 4 set to take place Saturday night on home ice.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
