Report: A Source Close to Gronk Puts the Odds of Him UnRetiring at 40%
PFT- The question of whether retired Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski has been discussed in many settings and contexts, and the video attached to this item paints the boundaries of the bigger picture.
When football season starts, Gronk may feel differently about his decision to walk away. But will he actually come back?
A source close to Gronkowski pegs his potential for a first annual unretirement at 40 percent.
For now, Gronk isn’t thinking about football. He’s enjoying his life, he doesn’t need the money, and he’s having a blast. The question becomes whether Gronkowski misses his teammates and/or the games after August becomes September. While he won’t miss dealing with training camp and the preseason, he could miss the game once they start playing games that count.
And here’s a factor that needs to be considered: If quarterback Tom Brady makes a direct appeal to Gronk, that could be the difference maker.
Do I want to be doing an almost daily update of this story? Do I want to be constantly recalibrating the Gronk UnRetirement Probability Meter like my 18-year-old adjusting the volume 10 times a song whenever I let him connect his phone to my car Bluetooth? No. No I do not want this. But I have certain responsibilities. When there is almost daily news, what choice do I have? Like any responsible Journo, I go where the story takes me. And today, it takes me here.
I was talking to someone about this who raised a very pertinent question. Let’s say the season comes and Gronk does feel the pull on his heartstrings to return. Say he finds that he’s got a void in his soul the exact size and shape of pro football that only coming back to the Patriots will fill, so he reenlists. What will the reaction be?
It goes without saying his once- and future teammates would be over the moon about it. His owner would gladly whip out his checkbook. Patriots fans the world over would rejoice. I personally would call everyone in my phone and do both parts of the Dusty Buns/Suzie Poo thing [SPOILER]:
The sports books in Vegas would register on the Richter Scale in LA from all the odds changes. The NFL would be offering Grief Counseling to all the defensive coordinators in the league.
The question though, is what would be the reaction of the one person whose opinion matters most, Bill Belichick?
It’s not a stretch to say that he wouldn’t embrace the idea of a guy skipping the entire offseason, training camp, workouts, installation of the offense, in-season practices and half the regular season, just to show up in November or December and announce he’s in the mood to play now. I mean, it’s never how he’s done business before, is it? The world’s biggest preparation junkie shouldn’t strike anybody as a good candidate for an arrangement where you skip most of the semester, show up, pass the final and pass the course, right?
I say he definitely would. Because while there’s not a direct, apples-to-apples example, there have been some correlations in the past.
Yes, there has never been anyone more into hyper-preparedness than Belichick. I used the term “junkie,” but it understates the case. If knowing everyone is on the same page was a narcotic, he’d be a meth tweaker. It explains why he’s never been afraid to cut loose a superior athlete in favor a guy who’s more coachable, with a better understanding of how the scheme works. But he’s also something we don’t talk about as much.
A pragmatist. Who’s always been willing to give a player special treatment when he thinks he has the potential to be a special player.
I’ll start with the most recent examples and work backwards.
–When he told Tom Brady he couldn’t have Alex Guerrero on the sidelines and on the team plane contradicting the medical advice of the team’s staff and that became an issue, he compromised. The Pliability War was in danger of becoming a distraction so he relented. Problem solved. Brady was happy. He got his rubdowns. His resistance band guru knew his boundaries. A Super Bowl championship ensued.
–When Junior Seau was in the last four years of his career and approaching 40, he was allowed to come and go on more or less an “as needed” basis. Especially in his last two seasons, when he was, for all intents and purposes, On Call for when injuries reached a crisis level.
–In the lead up to the 2001 season, one of the worst kept secrets in the league was that Bryan Cox was coming to New England. He was 33. At the tail end of his career. And had played under Belichick with the Jets. Therefore, he had earned a hall pass from most of training camp, showed up a couple of weeks before the season and played his ass off as the franchise won its first title.
–The year before, in one of his first moves as head coach in New England, Belichick waived the suspension that Pete Carroll had put on Terry Glenn. Now Glenn was a notoriously lazy practicer and one of the biggest wastes of athletic talent I’ve seen in my lifetime. And rewarded his new coach by spending the next season winning the Tour de Sidelines on a stationary bike while faking a hamstring in a ploy for a new contract. But the point is, Belichick was willing to at least try to give him special treatment.
–And if you want to go back far enough, with the Giants, Belichick went way out of his way to give Lawrence Taylor free reign. I don’t mean as far as skipping practices, because as far as I know LT worked as hard during the week as he did soliciting prostitutes. What I mean is how, for the only time in his career, Belichick let one player completely freelance – rush, drop, blitz, line up anywhere in the formation he wanted – while scheming up the other 10 O’s against the offense’s 11 X’s. With good reason. Because Taylor was good enough to warrant it.
Even more to the point, we’ve seen how he’s managed Gronk himself, keeping him out of every preseason game for the last half a decade or so, even when he’s been totally healthy. So yes, he would positively accept this arrangement. If anyone has earned the right, he has.
But for now, 40% or no 40%, I’m keeping my own Gronk UnRetirement Probability Meter at a firm 69%.