Rob Gronkowski took a swipe at the Patriots on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live,’ then walked it back!
The star tight end discussed everything from ‘that’ fateful game against the Jaguars to Tom Brady coming out of retirement, but not without some degree of controversy
Speaking in an interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the former Patriot seemed to take a swipe at his old team, but he was quick to back track on it.
Rob Gronkowski, Tom Brady and team bonuses
There was an odd moment when Rob Gronkowski spoke on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” this week especially where his former team, the New England Patriots was concerned. ‘Gronk’ as he’s known to fans made an appearance on Wednesday’s episode and during the interview, was asked by Kimmel about the attention grabbing scenario that played out in Tampa Bay’s last game of the regular season. It was of course back in Week 18 of the NFL season, when the tight end seemed to stay on the field much longer than would normally be the case during the Bucs’ brutal 41-17 defeat of the Panthers.
As was reported at the time, Gronk needed just seven catches to reach 55 for the season, which would earn him a $500,000 bonus. In addition star tight end needed just 85 yards to reach 750 for the season, which in turn would see him earn an another $500,000 bringing his bonus total for the season to $1 million. To add even further weight to the situation, Tom Brady also stayed in the game seemingly to insure that the Gronkowski’s targets would be met.
Gronk walks back his response to Jimmy Kimmel
After playing a highlight video of the aforementioned game, Kimmel then asked Gronk if such a thing was normal, to which he answered, “Yes, I’ve seen it before actually. Not with the Patriots, though, I mean, they’ll probably pull you before you hit that bonus there.” Almost immediately, Gronk began to laugh nervously and then stated, “I shouldn’t have said that.” Apparently Bill Belichick’s reach is far and wide as evidenced by Gronk’s apparent regret.
Jimmy Kimmel asks about Tom Brady
Aside from the talk of bonuses, there was also time for one of the bigger topics of the NFL offseason and that was of course Tom Brady’s decisions to come out of retirement. Kimmel asked the tight end for his thoughts given that he has spent his entire career - between two teams - receiving passes from the iconic quarterback. Interestingly, Gronkowski admitted that he was not surprised by Brady’s decision, but rather by the time of the announcement of it.
“I was not surprised at all,” Gronkowski said of Brady’s decision to return, also via ProFootballTalk. “I was actually surprised how quick it was, because I thought he was possibly going to take a year off or something like that and maybe come back after that. I believe he’ll have it until he’s at least 50 years old. I see his work ethic day in and day out, and it’s second to none.” Incidentally, where retirement is concerned Gronk is still yet to make an official decision, having said earlier this week that he’s “not ready to commit to the game of football right now.” At almost 33 years of age - his birthday is on May 14th - continuing would be what most fans would expect, on the other hand it would appear that for Gronk, the jury is still out.