It’s not happening.
New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski has playfully kept the football world hanging by joking about a potential return from retirement. But judging from Gronk’s new look, the tight end will not be returning to football. He’s done — genuinely retired.
He showed up to the red carpet premier for a Showtime documentary, “100 percent,” about Patriots receiver Julian Edelman. Gronk looked like he’d lost a lot of muscle weight in the months since Super Bowl LIII. His skinny look confirmed that Gronk isn’t going to make a surprise appearance at training camp in 2019 (or at any other point in the regular season).
He’s no longer huge. Well, he’s still 6-foot-7. But he no longer appears to be 260 pounds and prepared to take on contact from some of the NFL’s hardest-hitting safeties. Over the last few years, Gronk has played at a lower weight — but this weight change seems to be something different. The Patriots may be holding out hope for the tight end’s return, but Gronk appears to be done with football.
Twitter had plenty of jokes about Gronk’s retirement physique.
