Four-time Super Bowl champion Rob Gronkowski told New England Patriots coaches that he couldn’t remember how he got home from college parties before they drafted him.
In what the former tight end called “one of the worst draft meetings of all time,” Gronkowski’s last meeting before entering the 2010 NFL Draft was with the New England Patriots. Gronk said he had already been on “17 flights in 15 days,” visiting teams in hopes of becoming an NFL player.
“I was sick of that s***, bro,” the 35-year-old told the hosts of the “Spittin Chiclets” podcast.
‘I needed a nap. It wasn’t like I was in a meeting or anything.’
With a motto of “I’m over this s***” and “if a team wants to take me, take me,” Gronkowski recalled walking into the Patriots’ facility feeling “like ass.”
Gronk distinctly remembered making the decision to walk into the facilities like he owned the place, sick of putting on a fake persona.
“I’m going all out … I’m going to walk in like I’m at the University of Arizona walking into a party because I’m sick of putting on a show,” he told hosts Ryan Whitney and Paul Bissonnette.
However, Gronkowski acting like himself was a show in its own right. His first order of business was to “fall asleep on the table right in front of one of the highest members of the team.”
“But I needed a nap. It wasn’t like I was in a meeting or anything,” the former player clarified, as Whitney laughed hysterically.
When he was brought into the meeting room, Gronk said he started talking about how much he was liked at Arizona University and even told then-Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien that he “absolutely” did not remember walking home from parties during college.
“It was a disaster, bro,” Gronk explained. He added he told the coach that he should join him at some of the Arizona parties.
The coach then decided to test Gronkowski’s memory when it comes to football by drawing a play on a white board, erasing it, and then seeing if the young athlete could remember it.
“He draws the play up, erases it, [then says] ‘Write the play on the board!’ I’m like, ‘I don’t even know the play that you drew, I have no clue.’ Like, that was too difficult for me,” Gronk continued.
“I was over the whole process,” he added, with the hosts now laughing uncontrollably.
In Gronk fashion however, the five-time Pro Bowl player told the coach, “Draw up a play and throw me the ball, I guarantee I’ll catch it.”
O’Brien asked how he could get the ball to Gronkowski if he didn’t remember the play, to which 21-year-old Gronk said, “You’ll find a way to throw me the ball.”
Gronkowski said he left the meeting feeling like the team either hated him or loved him, and the rest was history. Gronkowski was drafted No. 42 in the second round by the Patriots and went on to play eight remarkable seasons.
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Fearless, Nfl, New england patriots, Sports
