Former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III has made a bold claim regarding the retirement of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. 

It was announced on Tuesday that Rob Gronkowski, affectionately named ‘Gronk’ has decided to retire after an 11-year career in the NFL that saw him play spend the majority of his time with the New England Patriots before spending the last two with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, dominating the league and become arguably the best to have ever played his position. 

During his time in the league, Gronkowski racked up 10,675 receiving yards across the regular and postseason whilst hauling in 108 touchdowns. Those numbers turned into a number of accolades as he was named First-team All-Pro four times and was named to 5 Pro Bowls, a spot in the 2010s All-Decade team as well as the NFL’s 100th-anniversary all-time team. 

But with all those numbers also came a lot of injuries, and clearly they have taken their toll on him finally as at the age of 33 he decided to step away from the game.

We’ve been down this road before

This however isn’t the first time that he retired as he did exactly the same to the New England Patriots ahead of the 2019 season, later going on to state that injuries had started to take a toll on his mental health as well as his physical health.

He kept himself busy during that time off, including spending time with WWE where he was briefly their 24/7 Champion following his appearance at Wrestlemania in 2020:

That retirement only lasted one year though, as following Tom Brady’s move to the Buccaneers later in 2020, Gronkowski followed suit and made the move to Tampa. 

And if Robert Griffin III has anything to say about it, Gronkowski will be putting on the shoulder pads soon enough. 

Willing to gamble big on it

Speaking on ESPN’s Get Up and then following it up on Twitter, Griffin III claimed that this move was done purely so that Gronkowski didn’t have to go through the full rigmarole of training and practice this offseason.

Indeed so confident was he that Gronkowski wouldn’t stick to his retirement, he, although perhaps with his tongue slightly in cheek, said that he would be willing to do something rather crazy if he came back: 

So the stakes have been set and now all eyes will be on Gronkowski to see if he sticks to his retirement or if he decides to come back for one more ride.