Rob Gronkowski officially announced his retirement from football earlier this offseason, but there are plenty of people who believe there’s a chance he could get the itch to chase one more championship with the New England Patriots if they need his services late in the 2019 season. Gronk insists that is not going to happen, however.
Gronkowski agreed to have his head shaved on Sunday for the ninth consecutive year at the One Mission “Buzz Off For Kids With Cancer” event at Gillette Stadium. He spoke with reporters briefly about how much he is enjoying retirement, and Karen Guregian of The Boston Herald asked him if he wants to put the comeback rumors to rest. Gronk appeared to do just that during an exchange you can hear at around the 1:08 mark of the video below:
Video: A smiling Rob Gronkowski answers questions from reporters, saying there will always be a family feel at Gillette Stadium, while touching on his connection with the New England community, how he plans to do more events like this, and how life is good in retirement. pic.twitter.com/74zFGXH1Kk
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) June 2, 2019
Gronk first gave Guregian permission to put the comeback talk to rest, but she asked if he wanted to do it himself. While he had a smile on his face the entire time, his response of “I just did” was not exactly ambiguous.
Several people close to Gronkowski have not ruled out the All-Pro tight end playing again, so it makes sense that the speculation has not gone away. Gronk has also dumped some fuel on the fire by cracking his own sarcastic jokes about retirement, but the truth is he was nowhere near the same player in 2018. Had he still been dominating when he retired, it might be easier to envision him playing again at some point in 2019.
