Brady Threw Passes to Gronk at a Workout at UCLA
Advertisement
Source – The Patriots won’t report to training camp for another two and a half weeks, but Tom Brady is already hard at work with a familiar face.
Brady threw to Rob Gronkowski during a private workout Monday on the UCLA campus, a source told MassLive. Gronkowski retired in March after a nine-year career in New England that should one day land him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The former All-Pro tight end is in Los Angeles for the second annual Monster Energy $50K Charity Challenge Celebrity Basketball Game set to tip off at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion on Monday night. …
Brady’s personal trainer and business partner, Alex Guerrero, was also present for the private session.
There’s a principle in drama known as “Chekov’s Gun.” Named after Anton Chekov, the playwright who authored “A Marriage Proposal,” “The Seagull,” and “Uncle Vanya,” and not the helmsman of the USS Enterprise‘s phaser. The original Chekov said that you shouldn’t have a gun hanging on the wall in Act I if it does not get fired by the end of Act III, otherwise there’s no need for it to be there and you’re doing your audience a disservice. I find myself thinking this any time say, JJ Abrams creates a big mystery about who Snoke is only to have him sliced in two like a bagel with a light saber or the “Game of Thrones” showrunners have Arya Stark ride off on a white horse that randomly survives a dragon slaughter and we never see or hear of the stupid horse again.
Well at this point, there’s so much teasing of Rob Gronkowski’s unretirement that it’s become a gun on Chekov’s wall that will need to be fired or else he’s doing Patriots fans a disservice. I mean, even if I’m just believing what I want to believe – which I readily admit – this UCLA workout is just the latest on a growing list of Easter Eggs that all point to something big happening. Willie McGinest said he thinks Gronk will come back. Rodney Harrison said it. Julian Edelman joked to Gronk about it at an awards show. Brady posted a comment on Instagram suggesting he and Gronk can still add to their touchdown total. Gronk goes on Rich Eisen and suggests he might feel like changing his mind once the games begin. Now this.
Even allowing for the fact Gronk is in LA for a sponsored charity event, and it’s not the worst thing for the sponsor to have him stand in front of their logo and talk about Brady wanting Robby G to catch his passes, this might not be a lot of something, but it’s certainly not nothing. Both of these guys are smart enough and media-savvy enough to know that workout sent a message. At least it teased a message. And in life as in storytelling, you’ve always got to pay off that tease if you care about your audience.
As of last week, the Gronk UnRetirement Probability Meter sat at 50/50. After this I’m resetting it. To 69%.