What’s the deal with all these Rob Gronkowski comeback rumors?
The New England Patriots and Rob Gronkowski may have a gentleman’s agreement that nobody knows about. Will Gronk make a comeback this season?
It’s hard for fans of any sport to let go of their favorite players, but even more so when it’s regarding a Hall of Fame caliber player. That’s how many people who are invested in the New England Patriots feel when it comes to their beloved former tight end who wore No. 87 for nine years.
Rob Gronkowski has made it clear that he has no intentions of returning to the NFL this season after retiring from the game last March. He has, however, left the door ajar by saying if he gets that “burning passion” to return that he’d consider making a comeback.
One of Gronk’s business endeavors resulted in him teaming up with CBD Medics and creating a line of CBD products to help athletes with recovery. It’s not clear how often Gronk uses CBD and how it’s absorbed into your system, but it’s worth noting that CBD is on the NFL’s banned substance list.
Recently it has been reported by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft told Gronkowski the vision he had for the future of Gronk playing on his team after the Pats defeated the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII. According to Rapoport, Kraft told Gronkowski that he’d like for him to return to the team sometime in November or December of this year to help with a playoff run.
#Patriots owner Robert Kraft on @nflnetwork just now: “We all love Gronk and I think the bottom line is, he hasn't put his retirement papers in. We can always pray and hope …. That's a good academic argument that there is hope for us still with Gronk."
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 10, 2019
Of course, the problem with a December return is that Gronkowski is still on the reserved/retired list, and by league rule, he has until November 30th to make a final decision on his eligibility for this season. That’s less than three weeks away at this point, which doesn’t give the two sides much time to work with.
On a recent episode of the RapSheet and Friends podcast, Gronkowski opened up about the way he feels regarding a return and his current condition if he wanted to play again:
"“A month [of training], if that. I could easily go out there right now and go. Easily. For sure.”"
Also during the podcast, Gronk mentioned how he currently weighs 245 pounds, which is about 15-20 pounds less than he was in his playing days.
When it comes to training for professional athletes, they can make their bodies ready a lot faster than just a normal person. So for Gronk to say he’d need a month to train for a potential comeback, it doesn’t seem like a farfetched timeline to believe.
On October 15th, Gronkowski joined WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show to show his line of CBD products and discuss what retirement life is like. Hill asked the obvious question to Gronk (are you going to come back?), and this was his response:
"“When I retired, I retired for a reason: because I needed to step away. So it would be a no.”"
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I’m not sure if that “burning passion” that Gronk would need to return to football is there or not.
However, there’s no denying that his comeback would be incredibly epic, and I think Gronk would enjoy being in the spotlight for another playoff push. And for the New England Patriots, Gronk could be their hero yet again.
We’ll have to wait and see if anything happens over the next 18 days.