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Hard to believe, but nine years ago, while he was a member of the New England Patriots, Ron Gronkowski was able to entice a cheerleader to break the rules about dating players.
That cheerleader was the same woman who he is currently dating nine years later, Camille Kostek.
The year was 2013. Gronk was just 24-years-old in the midst of his fourth year in the NFL – a year that began with numerous surgeries on his forearm, followed by back surgery, and finally, a torn ACL and MCL.
In between all that, however, Gronkowski found the time to volunteer at the Partiots’ Thanksgiving in a Basket event.
It was there that he ran into Kostek, who was in her first year of cheering for the team.
“How it’s going vs How it started,” Camille Kostek wrote on Instagram last week. “9 years ago today we were volunteering at the @patriots Thanksgiving in a Basket event with @goodwillboston where Rob slipped me his number through @jwiggs85 [Jermaine Wiggins].
“Yes I broke the @patriotscheerleaders rules at the time and called him up … but it was worth it. Swipe to the last frame to see our first photo together.”
She isn’t sure what the date was when they officially began dating (as recently as 2017, Gronk’s people said they weren’t dating), but they chose Nov. 22 as the anniversary anyway.
“We don’t know what the date specifically was that we started dating… so we celebrate the day this all began,” she said in a video.
Since that date, Kostek has parlayed her relationship with Gronk into multiple appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue as well as numerous endorsement opportunities and her own collection of swimwear.
Kostek, who appeared on the cover of the cheerleaders’ annual swimsuit calendar in 2013, said in a recent Instagram Q&A session that she was a Patriots cheerleader when Gronkowski won his first Super Bowl in February 2015. It was her last game cheering for the team.
As for why she quit cheering, Kostek said, “I felt like I truly lived out the best experience that I could on the team. I cheered for two seasons with the New England Patriots, and I went on a tour to China with three other teammates, I cheered at a winning Super Bowl for Super Bowl XLIX. I knew I wanted to move away from the East Coast and fulfill dreams on the West Coast so that’s what I did. That’s why I resigned.”