I decided that every now and again I will write a post based on something intriguing that deals more with off the field lifestyle of a person or an event. I know not everyone reading this cares about sports or is super serious about them so I hope I can keep your attention with these sort of posts. Which brings me to my topic for today: Rob Gronkowski aka Gronk. Whether you are a fan of the Patriots or not, you most likely have heard of this guy. He's known as that crazy football player who always in the news for getting with tons of women. Or that guy who was video-taped dancing and blacking out with an injured ankle after their Super Bowl loss to the Giants. Or that guy who spikes the ball after every touchdown he scores in a violent manner. Some people may say he's immature or unprofessional while others would say "he's the fucking man!!". But one thing is for sure, Gronk does what Gronk wants, when Gronk wants and Gronk can get away with it. Gronk has become almost a pop-culture phenomenon. This is very surprising however since the Patriots are thought of as the most professional and mild mannered team in the NFL. Their coach Bill Belichick is never in the business of trying to attract the media and tries to keep everything that's done in the organization as secretive as possible. Then there are guys like Tom Brady who may be in the public spotlight because of his marriage to Gisele, but during the off season he mainly keeps to himself, except when he does his modeling for Uggs (so manly Tommy). Well Gronk is the 1000% complete opposite of everything the Patriots preach for off the field behavior.
Earlier this week Gronk was the headlining feature on ESPN's E:60. The premise for the piece was that Gronk was given a handheld video camera to document what he had done over the summer. Well I wish I could have see the E:60 producer's faces when they first viewed the footage because it must have been priceless. On the camera were videos of Gronk going out to bars, stripping completely naked, blacking out the fuck out after downing a dozen or so shots and dancing with young attractive girls. Then periodically throughout the night he would check back in and speak to the camera as if he were making a video to document a wild blackout night in college, and not a documentary for the largest sports network in the world. But that's what makes this guy so cool. No on else would do that because they'd fear it would ruin their image or their reputation. But not Gronk, he's real and acts just like me or any of my friends would if they were in the same position.
Every now and then, especially during the summer, a picture will appear on the internet of Gronk. But also included in these photos are a bunch of girls, usually surrounding Gronk, after of course a night of heavy drinking and visiting the hottest clubs and bars in the country. Below are 2 examples of the hundreds of photos that appeared on the web this summer, or as ESPN called it "the summer of Gronk"
Needless to say, it looks like Rob enjoyed himself this summer. But this is exactly my point. If you gave any college aged guy a 6 year, $54 million contract in the NFL, I guarantee you they would be doing the same exact thing, or at least attempting to. But 99.9% of the time what happens is that once a young guy leaves college and becomes a professional athlete, they stop acting like everyone else their age because of the publicity and the pressure to perform at a high level in their respective sport. Which leads me to my final point. Why is Gronk different than everyone else? Why can he appear in photos with porn stars, or "actresses" as Gronk calls them? (See the infamous picture below with now "former" porn "actress" BiBi Jones...)
Like what professional athlete takes pictures like that?? One answer: Gronk. And Gronk can get away with that because he's the best. He's the best at his position in the world. He plays hard at night, but works even harder in the gym in the morning. He set all-time NFL records for a tight end last season by recording 18 total touchdowns, 17 receiving touchdowns and a staggering 1,327 yards receiving. And even more amazing, he accomplished all of these records in only his second year in the NFL at the age of 22. In early July, when I heard about Gronk's new 6 year, $54 million contract, I was personally worried as a Pats fan that he was going to go crazy and party harder than anyone the world had ever seen, and judging by those video's shown on E:60 he did. But as you know, he's Gronk and he showed up in late July for training camp ready to go and ready to destroy NFL defenses once again this season.
YO SOY FIESTA!!!!!
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