Julian Edelman and Patrick Chung shoot down no-name former Patriots' take on Gronk

Although the legendary tight end has not been part of the Patriots since his first failed retirement in 2019, Rob Gronkowski is still in the news as people are still discussing his time spent in New England.

The latest story making the rounds online about the four-time Super Bowl Champion comes from an apparent former Patriots defensive end named Jake Bequette, who discussed Gronkowski during an appearance on "Prime Time with Alex Stein" last week.

Upon first hearing of this story, most had the thought, "Who is Jake Bequette?" and it appears that has been the universal question of the week, not to mention probably the most Googled name since the story hit the internet.

Apparently, the 34-year-old spent three seasons in New England, from 2012-2015, even being a part of the Super Bowl XLIX winning roster. But since almost no one has heard of him, how reliable is his story on Gronkowski?

The overall premise of Bequette's story alleged that Gronkowski was an over-the-top partier who would show up to the Patriots facility still drunk or hungover and even suggested the tight end would sleep in the training room so much that it became normal behavior.

"We all had these key fobs that gave us 24/7 access to the Patriots facility there in Foxborough, and during the offseason, Gronk would go out all night with his boys in Boston, stay up till 3 or 4 in the morning, whatever it was, and have his crew drop him off at the Patriots facility. And he would, like, stagger into the Patriots locker room, key fob in, and go pass out on the training tables in the Patriots training room.

So then, like an hour or two later, when the trainers would come in to start their workday, they’d come in there and see Gronk just sprawled out on the training table, just fast asleep. They would go over there, they wouldn’t wake him up, they would roll up one of his sleeves and, you know, stick an IV in his arm. After a couple hours, he would just wake up like Frankenstein revived and go out there and just kick ass."

Although Gronkowski has a party animal reputation and has detailed his partying in various interviews over the years, there was never a hint of this extreme behavior by him during his time in New England, and it seems fair to assume that this is not something that would've been kept in house had it actually been happening.

Former Patriot Julian Edelman took to Twitter to denounce Bequette's story, calling it straight BS, and shared his admiration for his Gronkowski during their nine years together in Foxboro.

Recently retired Patrick Chung also defended his former teammate, saying exactly what we're all thinking by saying Bequette just wanted his few more seconds of fame by name-dropping Gronkowski on a show.

Because the story began to pick up steam and former teammates began to defend Gronk while simultaneously outing the story teller as a liar, Bequette attempted to clear his name by clarifying what he meant by his comments.

However, his suggestion of clickbait doesn't hold much weight when the clip of him discussing Gronkowski is also on video and audio, and he didn't refute the partying stories he shared.

Nobody doubts Gronkowski was a good teammate; nearly every player he worked with in New England has shared the same sentiment.

So for Bequette to take the time to clarify that part rather than the controversial statements he made is an interesting choice.