When Rob Gronkowski retired this offseason for the second time, not many believed he would stay retired all season. The last time Gronkowski called it quits, Tom Brady was able to convince him to come back and, with Brady returning to the Bucs, the expectation was, eventually, Gronk would to.
However, to this point, Gronk has remained steadfast in his retirement, but it’s not for a lack of effort from NFL teams. Brady and the Bucs’ struggles may have helped keep Gronk sidelined, as they don’t look anything like a Super Bowl contender, but a different team made a recent overture to the future Hall of Famer that almost worked thanks to a unique pitch — offering him the No. 69, as he told Kay Adams.
Wait so which team sent gronk a photoshop of him in a 69 jersey to woo him to their team?
pic.twitter.com/EmbKFRTeXy
— Kay Adams (@heykayadams) December 22, 2022
“One of the teams that wanted me to come back sent me a picture of me in a uniform wearing No. 69, and told me that I could be No. 69. This was two days ago,” Gronkowski said. “If I come back, I could be No. 69 and check in [as] eligible every play, where the referee would have to go over the microphone and say, ’No. 69 is eligible’ every single play. That almost got me to go back to football.”
I’m actually surprised this didn’t work on Gronk and him turning down the chance to wear No. 69 and make the referee say it every time he entered the game makes me more of a believer that he’s retired for good than anything else.