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Rob Gronkowski On Retirement, Possible Return

August 27th, 2019 at 11:11am CST by Zachary Links

Former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski made waves on Tuesday morning when he publicly hinted at a potential return to football. Things turned emotional during Gronk’s promotional presser, and he gave some further insight into his decision to retire and what might draw him back to the NFL. 

Here’s a look at some of the highlights, via ESPN.com’s Mike Reiss.

On his physical condition:

“Physically, I could play right now.”

On why he retired:

“I want to be clear to my fans. I needed to recover. I was not in a good place. Football was bringing me down, and I didn’t like it. I was losing that joy in life.”

On when he knew he would retire:

“I got done with [Super Bowl LIII] and I could barely walk. I slept five minutes that night. I couldn’t even think. I was in tears in my bed after a Super Bowl victory. It didn’t make that much sense to me. And then, for four weeks, I couldn’t even sleep for more than 20 minutes a night. I was like, ‘Damn, this sucks.’ It didn’t feel good. It was one of the biggest, deepest thigh bruises I’ve ever gotten.”

On the thought process behind his retirement:

“It’s a purpose to have passion in my life, to have joy in my life. And then to inspire optimal health within myself, I need to do that in order to get to a peak and then I can bring it to other people. Because I know [in] the NFL, players are dealing with that kind of stuff, they’re dealing with pain. I was. And I needed to walk away because I needed to do what was best for myself.”

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