Rob Gronkowski has received plenty of criticism for dancing and partying after the Patriots’ Super Bowl loss Sunday. Former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison blasted Gronk’s behavior, saying the young tight end needs to grow up. Team president Jonathan Kraft backed his star player during a radio interview Friday.
“One thing I do know is the guy is 100 percent a passionate when it comes to football,” Kraft said on ESPN Boston Radio. “He loves football. He wants to win. He doesn’t like losing. I don’t know specifically what people are questioning, but he’s an ultimate competitor. I think the team did accomplish a lot this year. Unfortunately, we fell a little bit short of the ultimate goal. I do think that he and other players probably have different ways of both celebrating what we were able to achieve and dealing with the disappointment of the night, and I think it’s hard to personalize how any individual would deal with that and project it on someone else.”
Gronk partying and dancing looks bad to a lot of people. It’s not the way heartbroken fans want to see their players respond to a loss. But we’re not in their shoes, and we don’t know how we would have reacted. And like I said, Gronk had a phenomenal year. He obviously knows what works for him and what doesn’t.
