We all know Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski has contemplated retiring over the past year. Even with all the media attention in Atlanta, Gronk has kept quiet about his plans for 2019.
But he did open up on Wednesday about how life in the league has taken a toll on him.
“The season’s a grind. It’s up and down. I’m not going to lie and sit here and say every week is the best,” Gronkowski said, according to NBC Sports Boston’s Nick Goss.
“Not at all. You go up, you go down. You can take some serious hits. To tell you the truth, just try and imagine getting hit all the time and trying to be where you want to be every day in life. It’s tough, it’s difficult. To take hits to the thigh, take hits to your head. Abusing your body isn’t what your brain wants. When your body is abused, it can bring down your mood. You’ve got to be able to deal with that, too, throughout the season. You gotta be able to deal with that in the games.”
“Everyone expects us players to be wide awake every single day, and it’s like, ‘yo, I just took 50 hits to my head’ – or not to my head, but I’m saying I just took 50 collisions, and then like the next day everyone wants you to be up.”
The 29 year old star TE has endured a number of major injuries throughout his career, including three back surgeries, four arm surgeries, a knee surgery, ankle surgery and a couple of reported concussions. He hasn’t played a full 16-game regular season since 2011.
He’s on the books for $12M in the Patriots cap for 2019. It’s hard to imagine the Patriots bringing him back at that high of a number.
While we don’t know for sure, Sunday’s Super Bowl could end up being Gronk’s final NFL game.
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