How Gronk Dented the Lombardi as Told by His Teammates is Compelling and Rich

Patriots.com has the historic, first-person accounts of the players who were eyewitnesses to Gronk’s denting of the Super Bowl LIII trophy. It’s the events as the unfolded, told by the men who were on the seen in their own words. And like all living histories, it needs to be preserved so that future generations will know what they went through, and what it was like to live in our times. In this Age of Gronk that they will scarcely believe was real.

Here is but a sample:

Jason McCourty: You knew something was going to go wrong when you hand out the six Lombardi trophies, especially one to Rob Gronkowski with idle time.

The Patriots were moved to a tent in the corner of left field, hidden from sight during the Red Sox World Series ring ceremony. There they waited until it was time to line up again and make their entrance.

Brian Hoyer: The first thing I remember is Julian [Edelman] like, “Hey, if I’m throwing out the first pitch, I need to get loose. I need to warm up.”

Slater: Julian winds up in his very dramatic fashion, which will be par for the course for him. He starts heaving it down there like he’s Pedro Martinez or somebody.

McCourty: Then Steph [Gilmore] comes in, warms up. Of course, Gronk goes up there and looks like he throws the ball about 80 miles per hour, just being the pure athlete he is.

Stacey James, Patriots Vice President of Media Relations: He throws the ball through the tent, leaves a hole in the tent.

Thuney: Jules is like, “Let’s put a body out there so I can get my accuracy down.”

Hoyer: Somebody had the bright idea to have Rob go be the hitter while Julian was practicing pitching.

Duron Harmon: He didn’t have a bat when he stepped up to the plate. A little strange.

Danny Etling: All of a sudden, Gronk grabs the trophy.

Keion Crossen: You see Gronk with the trophy, and you see Julian at our fake mound. He’s at the fake mound preparing to pitch like it’s the World Series and Gronk is just the final batter here. He’s definitely not going to hit it.

Thuney: He’s not going to do anything, right?

Cole Croston: My first thought was if it’s Rob and he’s standing up there with the trophy, he’s not going to not hit that ball that Julian’s throwing. He’s definitely going to hit it. Julian isn’t throwing it real soft. He’s throwing it pretty hard.

Slater: I see Rob standing at the backdrop where they’ve been throwing with the trophy, wielding it around like he’s getting ready to swing for the fences, but I say to myself, “Certainly that’s just Rob having some fun. He would never hit the ball with that.”

Etling: I was like, he’s not actually going to swing. I don’t think Jules thought he was going to actually swing.

Anonymous Patriots player: Everybody who was there watching was thinking the same thing, but also wanting to see it. It was kind of like our child side was like, “We really want to see this happen,” and then our adult side left the room. We were just like, “Let the kids play.”

Hoyer: I mean, I know it’s Rob, but there’s no way he’s going to swing at this pitch when Julian throws it. Julian’s doing the wind up, comes back to the stretch looking like there’s runners on base, and he throws it. I’m watching the ball like it’s in slow motion.

Cardona: Julian threw the ball right down the middle, and Rob squared up a bunt. He made great contact.

Karras: It sounded exactly what you think a baseball hitting the Lombardi trophy would sound like.

Slater: Ding.

Harmon: Doink.

Crossen: Doot.

Croston: Tink.

McCourty: Everybody went wild like the bunt just won us the World Series.

Croston: Everyone starts jumping around and everything because Rob just hit it with a trophy.

Cardona: Everybody went crazy.

James: That was not my reaction.

Slater: I saw the look on people’s faces like I see on my son’s face when he’s done something that he shouldn’t have, and Rob’s got a little grin. Then I turn to our fearless leader Stacey James. I see the look on his face, and it dawns on me, “Oh goodness. Something has gone awry here.”

Thuney: We looked down at the trophy like, “Oh my goodness. There’s a dent in the Lombardi trophy.”

Etling: It’s got this big old dent in it.

Slater: Now, we’re all under the impression these are replica trophies, then we learned that indeed these were not replicas. These were the real trophies.

Stephon Gilmore: And it’s not an old trophy. It’s the brand new one.

Harmon: You can’t hide a baseball dent in there. Everybody literally went to the trophy and saw it. I think Rob thought it was more funny than anything. …

Etling: It was one of the more reckless things I’ve seen in my life.

Cardona: I doubt we’re going to be allowed to go anywhere with any of the trophies ever again. Every single time I see it, I’m just like, I can’t believe that happened.

James: I’ll give the Krafts credit. It wasn’t the reaction I was fearing. They were very receptive. It’s hard to explain at first. “He did what?” It’s hard to picture where this was and what happened.

And there you have it. The historic record. As Shakespeare put it, “this story a good mans shall teach his son.” Decades from now, school kids will be taking tours of the Hall at Patriots Place, be led past the 20 or 30 Lombardis, spot the dent and ask how it got there. And it’ll be up to the adults who lived through this Golden Age to tell the tale.

And I hope they do leave the dent there. In the same way they left the crack in the Liberty Bell. The different-colored stones in the top half of the Washington Monument. That part in the Constitution that says only white guys get to vote. It’s those imperfections that make history come alive. One of my brothers once drunkenly took a leak on Plymouth Rock and it is easily the most interesting thing about what is, as the name would imply, just a rock.

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And in his own way, Gronk has made that one particular Lombardi stand out with his wanton, childish, irresponsible hijinks. And if I’d been there with his teammates, watching it all unfold in that slow-motion trainwreck way, I would’ve handled it the same way. Because if there’s one thing that all men have in common, it’s that every so often, we just need to do something hilariously stupid. God help me, how I do love these guys.