Gronk's Brother Explains How Gronk and Belichick Settled Their Differences
WEEI – The conversation about Rob Gronkowski’s offseason keeps on going. … [A]ppearing on the Kirk & Callahan Show, Chris Gronkowski offered some insight as to his brother’s mindset when it came to a future with the Patriots and why there may have been some discord.
“It was kind of a crazy offseason. There wasn’t a ton of communication between the two,” said Chris Gronkowski, referencing his brother and the Patriots. “He wanted to get paid what he deserved. He wanted to be paid as one of the top tight ends for once. It’s been a struggle for him to make that money. They want him on an incentive-base and he proved himself last year, ‘I’ll take incentive-base,’ and he got the job done. For him, he just wanted to sit down and get paid what he deserved and what made sense for him. I didn’t figure the trade would ever happen. He wanted to stay in New England no matter what and that’s what ended up happening. He just wanted to be comfortable with what he was playing for.”
According to Chris, an agreement was ultimately reached between the parties during a sit-down between the tight end and his head coach, Bill Belichick …
“He just wanted some more freedom and he wanted to get what he deserves. He was being paid like he was just a mediocre tight end and just wanted to get some respect on that front, as well. … Between the contract and offseason training, stuff like that, he wants to be able to do, and get done what he needs to get done.”
Rob’s younger brother added, “After the whole trade talks went down he went in and talked to Belichick and I know he tweeted right after it. It was just all about getting on the same page with him. They sat down, they talked everything out. He let him know what he needed done and Belichick let him know what he needed. After that he came out, he tweeted, ‘I’m going to be in New England,’ and he’s happy to be there. There was just communication errors where they weren’t talking and they sat down, they got it together and figured everything out. …
“[H]e loves where he’s playing, he loves who he’s playing with and he loves winning games,” Chris Gronkowski said. “He would rather give that money up and play for a team he wants to play for.”
Well this explains a lot. And is pretty much what I’ve suspected all along. That for Rob Gronkowski it was never about winning the WWE tag team belt with Mojo Rawley or winning an Oscar for starring alongside Dwayne Johnson in the film adapation of Holmes and Yoyo or whatever. That all the wildly irresponsible speculation that he was close to making a career move were wrong. And that his offseason of cryptic Tweets, vague non-answers, weirdo press conferences, Leprechaun costumes and comments about Brady and #AssEatinSZN were all just about wanting a new contract and more latitude when it comes to how he trains. Just like I’ve been saying.
Gronk has been unhappy, that much is obvious. As we’ve heard, Belichick called him out in front of the team for the trading in his weights for TB 12 brand resistance bands and he didn’t like it. He wanted a new contract and the Patriots were coming off a Super Bowl win with him on Injured Reserve so they only offered him more incentives and he didn’t like it. So the two sat down like professionals who’ve been crucial parts of one another’s success, talked it over and hammered out their differences like grownass men. Gronk gets yet another incentive-laden pay raise. His coach gives him the veteran consideration of more latitude to prepare himself how he sees fit. Agreements are made. Understandings reached. Hugging. Learning. Someone cracks a joke. They all throw back their heads with laughter. Freeze frame. Closing theme song. Roll credits.
Look I like the Gronkowskis. I’ve done radio with some of them. Met some others. They’re great. They understand that the family name is a brand and they try to protect it. Like I’ve also been saying all along, when you read a report about Gronk wanting a new contract, that is shorthand for the entire Gronkowski clan. They are in the Rob Gronkowski business, and business is good. He is their meal ticket. And it wouldn’t help the brand at all to have him go on tour with Monday Night Raw or pretending to be the next Gary Oldman, so they have a vested interest in him being a future Hall of Fame tight end. And that is fine. I respect a family that looks after their own.
That said, I could live with the brothers staying out of this publicly. As much as I appreciate knowing the inside dope we would never get otherwise, overall this is a bad look for the organization. Right or wrong, they don’t air this kind of thing out there for public consumption. They simply don’t. Especially not in the middle of a season. The Gronk brothers might not like it, but it’s how business has been done here since long before any of them wore a Patriots uniform. It’s a little harder to follow the signs in the locker room that say “Ignore the Noise” when one of your own player’s family members is making the noise.
I mean, Christ, Brady’s wife once yelled something about the slot receiver dropping a pass in an emotional moment when some Giants fans were chirping her, and he was still answering questions about it months later. Nothing with this team happens in a vacuum. They are too hyper relevant. Every comment has a ripple effect that never stops turning into waves, swells, whitecaps, curls and tsunamis of controversy. If every sibling of every player went on the radio to dish about the inner negotiations of between the coach and his team, we’d never hear the end of it.
The timing is especially in the aftermath of Gronk admitting he was going to quit if they traded him to Detroit and the team playing like garbage the last two games. The media sharks smell blood in the water. Things are being spun like Belichick has completely lost his locker room and Brady and Gronk are forming a faction that’s taking all the power away from him. Which is not good. So yeah, while I’m happy to hear everything went well, the offseason problems were worked out and swords have been pounded into plowshares, the goal – for the players and their families – is still only supposed to be about beating Miami Sunday. And I don’t see how any of this helps. So thanks for the info, Chris Gronkowski. It really was good to hear. But from now on we could use more Gronk, less talk.
