“He Sent Me Flying”: Rob Gronkowski Recalls Brutal Welcome from Patriots Legend as Rookie

Imagine you’re a 21-year-old rookie TE. Fresh from college and full of energy, running as fast as you can with the ball in your hand. Hoping to impress your senior teammates. And all of a sudden, you’re tackled by this huge guy who almost looks like a wall. The next thing you know, you’ve flown back 5 yards. That is sort of the welcome to the NFL one would expect to get. And that is exactly what Rob Gronkowski got in his training camp.

Drafted in 2010 by the New England Patriots straight out of Arizona. Rob Gronkowski would never forget the moment when he first understood the magnitude and gravity of playing in the NFL. It was probably a warm morning in July 2010 when he stepped into the Gillette Stadium, hoping to leave a mark. But little would he have anticipated the mark that the training camp left…on him.

Gronk, on his Dudes on Dudes Podcast, revealed what really happened in his first training camp. While talking about his ‘Welcome to the NFL’ moment during his rookie season, he spoke of how he wanted to impress his teammates, and which of them eventually gave him that moment. “Vince Wilford. He gave me my welcome to the NFL dosage of a hit,” Gronk said. “We’re in training camp, rookie year. I’m in full pads. I got to show my toughness. I got to show my keeps. I got to get the respect of my fellow teammates,” Gronk added while emphasizing the gravity of the situation. After all, this moment would stay with him for life.

“So the play. It’s on its way. I do my little two side steps. I’m running full speed right at Vince Wilford. He sees me coming. He has this grin on his face, knowing I was coming. He put his shoulder down. I’m going full speed at him,” Gronkowski said while building up to the moment to the impact with the 6-foot-2, almost 300-pound DL. And soon enough, there it was, Wham! “He gets that leverage and just tees off on me. I went flying backwards five to six yards. I didn’t even land on my back. He sent me flying in the air, where I landed on my feet still,” said Gronk while he described the impact and the aftermath of the hit he suffered. All’s well that ends well, we suppose.

It did end well for Gronk, as he successfully did everything he wanted to do in his first training camp. “What’s cool is that I gained the respect of my teammates,” he said. And man, that would’ve made him happy. After all, the Patriots’ roster during that season was intense and of the top quality, with the likes of Tom Brady, Wes Welker, and Rob Ninkovich among others.

While Rob Gronkowski talks of the NFL and reminisces about his memories, a new trend is taking shape: Flag Football. With the introduction of the sport, which is so similar to Football, in the Olympics, players, ex-players, and young athletes alike are getting attracted to this sport. And in classic Gronk fashion, he is where the trend is.

Rob Gronkowski talks about Flag Football’s future

With the emergence of Flag Football as this new (not really), but physically less punishing version of Football, all eyes are on it. And with the sport on the to-be-played list at the LA28 Olympics, even ex-NFL players are showing their interest. With the likes of Tom Brady, who will reportedly un-retire to play in it, already ready. There’s going to be one more addition.

“I love flag football,” Gronk said. “Being able to grab the flag. Absolute dominates two-hand touch because it’s a skill to grab the flag as well. And you can juke, you can show your quickness as well,” he added. Seemingly interested in taking a spot on the team, while putting in a small “Hopefully, there’s no tryouts and they just accept me.”

Gronk also talked about the future of the sport and the growth it can see in the future. According to Gronk, “When our top 10 flag football players from the NFL go out and dominate the world, we’re gonna start getting Chinese people, Japanese people, more German people.” In short, it signals a global takeover of the sport. A sport that very few actually knew existed.

While he agrees that it will take “at least a decade,” he is hopeful that the newfound popularity of the sport will result in grassroots-level development, coaching, and investment before other countries can truly compete with Americans.

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