Gronk Comes Down Off the Top Rope After Aaron Rodgers Over His "I Can Win MVP Again" Comments

Jordan Strauss. Shutterstock Images.

Aaron Rodgers is, to put it mildly, a polarizing figure. Which you would expect from a guy who's been so high-profile for such a long time, as successful as he's been while failing so often in the postseason, being so opinionated, all the while having his personal life play out in the pop culture as much as any athlete of his generation. Those are the ideal ingredients for producing the perfect controversial athlete. Add to that the fact he's a Michelin Star chef when it comes to not giving fucks what people think of him, and he becomes one of the ultimate love-him-or-hate-him guys. 

So when he weighed in yet again on his favorite topic, the way the Packers are being run and how that affects his future plans:

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… it was no surprise he'd cheese off the usual suspects:

What is surprising - and I don't think it's a stretch to call it stunning, if not even shocking - is that he'd get Rob Gronkowski shook enough to come at him:

There's no doubt Gronk liked to talk shit on the field. From getting into guys' grills after an especially cheap shot to spiking it in their faces to that time he threw Sergio Brown out the club, he was never one to suffer fools gladly. I just honestly cannot remember him ripping into another player like this. Not even during his time on Fox, where being critical is semi-part of the job description. 

Maybe this is just Gronk finally settling into his still fairly new role as a former player giving his honest, expert opinion on the subject. But I think it might have less to do with him just starting to get his broadcasting feet under him than it does to the guy he's talking about. If you're going to start calling players out, Rodgers is a good place to start. He's Gronk's gateway hot take topic. Again, owing to the fact he's had so much to say over the years, with so few rings, and that puts him in pretty much everyone's cross hairs. He's one of those people you can respect, but still find him off-putting as all hell. 

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And to Gronk's point, find the lie in anything he said. It might not have been the most eloquent verbal attack. And you can hear him trying to smooth out the sharp edges a little. But he's new at this. 

To a guy like Gronk that won so much, it's got to be flat out weird to hear a four-time MVP who's gone a decade without winning a ring reference another MVP like that's the primary goal. It does to me, and I've never been the most valuable anything. I mean, why not mention you might win another OPOY, make another All Decade Team or take home another coveted Bert Bell Award? 

The larger point being that when you've alienated people to the point you're catching a People's Elbow from Rob Gronkowski, it's time to do some serious soul searching.