Former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski opened the door to his NFL return in a big way speaking to reporters in New York Tuesday.
Gronkowski did say he’s not in the right place to make such a move at this time, but he absolutely made it clear he “will go back to football” if certain conditions are met.
“If I have the desire to play football again, if I feel passionate about football again, if I’m feeling like I need to be out there on the field, I will go back to football,” Gronkowski told reporters, per the Boston Herald. “But as of right now, that is not the case. It could be the case in six months. It could be the case in two years. It could be the case in three years. It could be the case in three months. But I truly don’t see it in the foreseeable future — in, like, a week or a month. No. I want to do a different chapter of my life right now.”
Who knows how long this current chapter will last? He clearly is still of the mind that football is not for him at this time.
“I want to be clear to my fans: I needed to recover,” Gronkowski said. “I was not in a good place. Football was bringing me down, and I didn’t like it. And I was losing that joy in life.”
Gronkowski has options, to be sure. He’s been talked about as a potential movie star, and he’s already shown a natural proclivity for the WWE.
Wherever he goes, Gronk’s magnetic personality and winning smile serve him well. But as the Patriots struggle to replace him on the field, even his old quarterback wants to see him back in the fold.
If the Pats have a difficult time this season without the future Hall of Famer, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if he were lured out of retirement to help Tom Brady and Co. attempt yet another championship run.