Rob Gronkowski is back in the NFL. No, Gronk won’t be playing for the New England Patriots — or any NFL team for that matter — but he will be part of the action as he will be an NFL analyst for Fox Sports. This will be the first big gig for Gronkowski since retiring from the league after the end of the 2018 season.
“I’m extremely excited to be joining FOX Sports,” Gronkowski said in a statement via New York Daily News. “For the past 25 years, they’ve offered viewers top-notch NFL programming from the field to the booth to the studio. Their deep talent roster is unmatched, which was important for me as I embark on this new chapter in my life because I’ll be able to learn from the best in the business.”
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Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reported that Gronkowski will be on the show Fox NFL Sunday with Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson, and Michael Strahan. His start date has not been announced.
This doesn’t mean Gronk is getting closer to a return, but it’s clear he still wanted to be a part of the game. If the former All-Pro tight end does decide to return, he needs to get healthy first. Last month, Gronkowski was on CBS News and he revealed he suffered 20 concussions during his lifetime.
“I will let my son play football, but first, I will educate him on the game, educate him on what I went through,” Gronkowski said. “I truly believe that anything, any injury that you receive is fixable, though. I went through my career and probably had like 20 concussions in my life. No lie. I remember like five blackout ones.”
That alone could have been one of the reasons Gronkowski called it a career. But when he was on the HBO show The Shop, Gronkowski revealed the real reason he retired.
“It was about two years ago,” he said. “It was a game-changer in my life where I was trying to go out to the practices during summer, and I was getting smoked by every rookie. And I felt in order to do something bigger in life, in order to get to a higher stage – because you’re winning the Super Bowl — I felt like I had to get away from the game and focus on my health.”
In his career, Gronkowski post 521 receptions, 7,861 yards and 79 touchdowns in nine seasons along with winning three Super Bowls with the Patriots.
