Rob Gronkowski
Rob Gronkowski
Robert Paxton Gronkowski, nicknamed "Gronk," is an American football tight end for the New England Patriots of the National Football League. Raised in Williamsville, New York, he played college football at Arizona, winning several awards, including being named The Sporting News freshman All-American, Rivals.com freshman All-American, The Sporting News freshman Pac-10, as well as being named to the watchlist for the Lombardi Award...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFootball Player
Date of Birth14 May 1989
CityAmherst, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I've always been a fan of football, always watched the NFL and it's great to always sit back wherever I can this year. You sit back and enjoy the games, pop a little sports drink - not any pop or soda - lay back, watch the games. It's always cool to see how the games go down and just enjoy them.
As time goes on you're getting more knowledge of your playbook and football, and you just pick it up a lot easier. Lining up everywhere is just second nature to me now.
You always want to be on top of the playbook. You always want to be refreshed with the plays, make sure you're on the same page with everyone else.
My brother's got two degrees. He got one for me.
I was running super slow. Chris thought I was done. Then one day at the end of February, I woke up and my body felt good. I was just so happy. I was faster than my brother again. I got all my moves back. I told him, 'Brother, I'm back, and now you're done!'
I feel like when I do some dance moves during the week or at the house, I'm quicker on my feet. I can react quicker just from dancing.
We go out to practice every single day and we have fun out there, but at the same time, we're getting work done. We're going hard. If it's reps for the scout team, we're giving them good reps. If we're getting reps for the first team as a tight end group as a whole, we try and go out there and put our best out there as a group effort.
You can't do it all. You get many requests all the time, but I still have to focus on football, still have to live my life a little bit. But there are definitely times during the week when you want to take time out.
To this day, I still haven't touched one dime of my signing bonus or NFL contract money. I live off my marketing money and haven't blown it on any big-money expensive cars, expensive jewelry, or tattoos and still wear my favorite pair of jeans from high school.
You have no confidence when you come out of surgery because you can't really do anything. You're like, 'Man, am I ever going to heal?'
Everyone always helped me out growing up, and everyone now supports me Sunday. So whenever there's a chance to give back, to the community, to the less fortunate kids so they have the opportunity to gain the most potential they can in their life to be success, it's always good to do.
Just follow the rules. Always have a designated driver. Don't be doing anything to make someone mad. And just walk away from the trouble.
I was always blessed growing up with opportunities and access to facilities, equipment, and playing with my brothers in the backyard to be the best athlete I could be.
Just like any other game we're taking on we've got to prepare, prepare hard, mentally, physically. We've been practicing hard.