Coaching a Unique Personality — or, What It’s Like to be Gronk’d
With Rob Gronkowski, partying is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a sizable tip, and a very, very noticeable tip. But it is just the tip.
That might have been lost on the millions who watched him celebrate his fourth Super Bowl victory as an NFL tight end this year, this one in his first season as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, after nine extraordinary years with the New England Patriots.
There was Gronk, embracing quarterback Tom Brady, his teammate in both places, after the Bucs took down Kansas City to win it all. They had a sizable say in the outcome, seeing as Brady, a seven-time champion, connected twice with Gronkowski for touchdowns. And now they were beside themselves with joy.
Gronk congratulated Brady within range of the NFL Films microphones. “This is what we do. This is why we came here.”
“Two tuddies?” Brady screamed at him, as in TDs. “TWO TUDDIES?”
“I was saving ’em for the Super Bowl,” Gronk informed him, a reference to a regular season when he hadn’t been a target in the passing game as often as in years past.
And there was Gronk a little while later, interrupting an interview with teammate Mike Evans to tell him it was time to party. The next day, Gronk could be found teaching Mickey and Minnie Mouse his celebratory spike during a visit to DisneyWorld. And a few days after that, he was once again on the receiving end of a Brady delivery, this time when the QB tossed the Vince Lombardi Trophy from one boat to another during the team’s amphibious parade.
That’s Gronk. He lives his life joyously and publicly. I’m well aware of that, having been his head coach at the University of Arizona from 2007–09. I too knew him as a unique personality, as a life-of-the-party guy. But here’s something that others might not appreciate or understand: The reason he has had so much to celebrate during his professional career is that he has always been serious about his craft. When it was time to get down to work at Arizona (and no doubt elsewhere), he did so. He never loafed in practice, never eased off the throttle, always sought greatness.
We knew he was something special when he came to us from Woodland Hills High School, outside Pittsburgh, after growing up in New York State. His dad, Gordy, had been an offensive lineman at Syracuse. His four brothers would all go on to play professional sports. And Rob flashed right away on the practice field as a freshman. He caught 28 passes that year, 47 a season later,
He missed the entire ’09 season with a back injury, which gave the NFL scouts pause. So too did his reputation. In the run-up to the 2010 draft, I took a phone call from Bill Belichick, New England’s Hall of Fame-bound head coach. He bluntly asked what the deal was with our tight end.
I remember telling Belichick not to get thrown off by Gronk’s quirkiness — that while he was undeniably different, he was also undeniably intelligent, and a fierce competitor. That recommendation serves as the best advice I’ve ever given another coach, as the Patriots took him in the second round of the draft.
The rest is history. As Gronk told reporters in the days leading up to the Super Bowl, New England is where the legend of Gronk started. He quickly became one of Brady’s favorite targets, catching 521 passes in his nine seasons with the Patriots, for 7,861 yards and 79 touchdowns. He scored 10 or more TDs in five of those seasons, an NFL record among tight ends, and totaled 1,000 or more yards in four of them, which equaled another mark.
Such production, coupled with his outsized personality, was sure to make him a celebrity. And sure enough, he was the subject of feature stories in GQ and Esquire. He appeared in movies and on TV shows. He took up with Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Camille Kostek.
He nonetheless retired following the 2018 season despite being just 29 years years old at the time, citing the physical and mental toll the game had exacted over the course of his career. That season had seen the Patriots win their sixth Super Bowl in 18 years, all with Brady as their quarterback, but he would spend just one more year in New England before signing with Tampa Bay.
Soon after Gronkowski elected to come out of retirement, and coax a trade to the Bucs. While he caught just 45 passes during the 2020 regular season, a pedestrian total compared to his production in New England, he impressed his new bosses. Tampa Bay head coach Bruce Arians told the Providence Journal shortly before the Super Bowl that Gronk’s work ethic was “unbelievable,” and Arians was echoed by tight ends coach Rick Christophel.
“He’s just a joy to be around,” Christophel told the Journal. “He’s a hard worker. He’s a pro. He knows what he has to do. He comes in, works and does his job to prepare. … He’s one of those guys you love to be around. It makes the game fun for me.”
Nothing I hadn’t discovered years earlier. To those who don’t know any better, Rob Gronkowski might appear to be somewhat less than serious, maybe even a little goofy. But at his heart he is a grinder, forever striving, forever seeking to be the best version of himself.
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