Report: Rob Gronkowski threatened to retire after nearly being traded to Lions

Rob Gronkowski has spent the past week preparing to face the Detroit Lions on Sunday night, and there was apparently a point where he was close to catching passes from Matthew Stafford instead of Tom Brady.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on “Sunday NFL Countdown” that the New England Patriots were “deep into trade discussions” with the Lions surrounding Gronkowski at the time of the draft earlier this year, but Gronk took a hard stance against the deal. Sources told Schefter the All-Pro tight end threatened to retire when informed of the impending trade and would not return phone calls from Lions executives.

Gronkowski revealed immediately after the Super Bowl that he was contemplating retirement, so it’s unclear if that is what prompted the Patriots to shop him around. In any event, the 29-year-old agreed to a re-worked contract with the Patriots that allows him to make an additional $4.3 million in incentives.

The report about Gronk nearly being traded to the Lions meshes with what we heard before about him telling the Patriots he only wants to catch passes from Tom Brady and play for Bill Belichick. The latter part is particularly interesting given some of the rumblings we heard about the relationship between Gronkowski and Belichick during the offseason.