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UPDATE: It has since been revealed that this Gronk trade “report” was a joke. A hilarious one at that. Lets all laugh at me for wasting an hour of my life writing this up! What a loser!
Reports of Rob Gronkowski growing tired of the stringent Patriot Way and Bill Belichick growing agitated over Gronk’s lack of commitment have been picking up steam in recent weeks. The friction has reportedly pushed Belichick to the point where he’s more willing to trade the All-Pro tight end, who we are now “pretty certain” he will forgo retirement and will play in 2018.
Yesterday, MMQB’s Albert Breer revealed that a couple teams were preparing trade offers for Gronk during owners meetings in Orlando just hours after ESPN reported that Gronk will likely return to the Patriots next year. Breer speculates that getting Gronk back may require the Patriots to shell out more money.
A lot of moving parts, a lot of hot takes, a lot of speculation, a lot of ‘allegedly’s.’
Well, Ken Laird, a Senior Producer for Boston’s WEEI talk radio show, is being more absolute in his statements. WEEI tweeted the following this morning:
Breaking: @KenLairdWEEI is reporting that Gronk is going to be traded in the next couple weeks.
— Mut at Night (@MutAtNightWEEI) April 3, 2018
While Laird’s report should not be taken as gospel, it may hold water, especially considering Belichick has earned the reputation of being cold-blooded with regards to moving on from franchise favorites (see: Lawyer Milloy, Deion Branch, Wes Welker, Mike Vrabel, Richard Seymour, and around and around we go).
With that said, the Gronk trade would send unfamiliar reverberations through New England and resemble more of a franchise tailspin than the transcendent work of an evil genius head coach. Gronk is as much embedded in the fabric of New England as clam chowder and dropping your r’s. Oh yeah, and he’s a once-in-a-generation player whose departure would mean a complete strategy makeover.