No, Rob Gronkowski doesn’t just get the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ game plan from Tom Brady.
The five-time Pro Bowl tight end, as his filter-free personality tends to do, took the news cycle for another fun spin this week when, during the Monday Night Football Manning-cast on ESPN2, he said he doesn’t watch film during Bucs’ practice weeks.
It. Was. A. Joke.
But in these often humorless times, jokes sometimes have to be clarified as such.
“I watch so much film, my girlfriend throws s--- at me,” Gronkowski said Wednesday, per Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times.
Some wondered if Gronkowski was being serious when he joined legendary quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning on ESPN’s alternate broadcast of the MNF game between the Lions and Packers, and suggested otherwise.
“My teammate, (fellow tight end) Cam Brate, just asked me the other day, he goes, ‘Rob, I have a serious question.’ He goes, ‘Do you ever watch film?’,” Gronkowski told the Mannings, per the Tampa Bay Times. “And I said, ‘No, I don’t. I just run by guys. If I’m feeling good, I’m feeling good.’”
He added: “I know Tom (Brady) watches 40 hours of film a week. I go, ‘Tom, who’s covering me this week? What kind of coverages are they playing?’”
He speaks with a wink, we listen with a grain of salt.
It was Gronk being Gronk, and his play of late has been similarly aligned with his stellar career. His four TD catches -- two in each of Tampa Bay’s first two games -- currently lead all NFL pass catchers. Throw in his two touchdowns in the Bucs’ Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs in February, and there is little doubt that a Gronk revival is upon us.
And all the clowning that goes with it.