Rob Gronkowski leaves a dent in sixth Lombardi Trophy

Retired Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski left a dent in one of New England’s Lombardi Trophies when he used it as a bat during the Red Sox home opener.

Rob Gronkowski made a major impact on the New England Patriots organization in just nine short seasons. And on April 9 at the Boston Red Sox home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays, Gronkowski even made what some could call a “Major League” impact… emphasis on the impact.

Before coming out on the field with a platoon of other Patriots players from the squad’s Super Bowl-winning 2018 team, Gronkowski goofed around with teammates, tossing baseballs around and practicing their pitches. Gronk, Julian Edelman, and Stephon Gilmore were all scheduled to simultaneously throw out first pitches that day.

It was all fun and games as the New England players horsed around and got loose. That is, until Edelman tossed Gronkowski a warm-up pitch. The veteran tight end squared up to bunt, watched as the ball got close, and then to the surprise of all those assembled: actually hit the ball with the trophy.

Upon impact, Gronk and the other players immediately realized that the small swing left a baseball-sized dent on one corner of the top of the trophy, where the silver football juts away from the rest of the apparatus.

The Patriots posted a fun video to their official Twitter account on Wednesday, highlighted by footage of the incident and on-camera interviews with some of Gronkowski’s teammates who were on-hand to witness it all go down.

According to a report from ESPN’s Mike Reiss, the Patriots might elect to fix the dent at some point in the future… or they might not. The team’s executive vice president of media relations, Stacey James, reportedly had this to say: “We’re going to keep the dent and tell the story.”

If that indeed is the case, then it’s a fitting physical manifestation of the mark Gronkowski left on the Patriots organization he now leaves behind. He will go down as one of the greatest players in New England franchise history, and arguably as the greatest tight end in NFL history as well.