Seldom does minicamp week generate a flood of news, but Friday marked a fitting cap to what has been a wild stretch of days in Foxboro.
After New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady spoke to the media following his OTAs absence and Julian Edelman was suspended four games for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug, rumors circulated Friday that the Patriots were knocking on the door to trading star tight end Rob Gronkowski.
That news turned out to be patently false.
A Reddit user who accurately predicted the Edelman suspension stated he had “MAJOR” Patriots news that he’d break Friday evening. That led to plenty speculation, including a theory (that all signs pointed to as a joke) from Barstool Sports’ David Portnoy that Gronkowski would be traded. Major outlets picked it up and ran with it, but that news was quickly squashed.
It was further quelled by this tweet Friday evening from ex-New England quarterback Scott Zolak, who currently serves as the analyst on the Patriots radio network.
And that Reddit user?
He did, indeed, share his big news earlier in the hour before Zolak’s tweet, saying it was all a sham and just a lucky guess that he ran with.
While there of course is legitimacy to the Edelman news, it is apparent that there never was any talk within the organization of trading Gronkowski.
