Rob Gronkowski announced his retirement Sunday after nine seasons in the NFL, all with the Patriots.
This means the All-Pro tight end spent his final on-field moments last month — assuming he stays retired — guiding New England to another title, even making a huge catch in the fourth quarter of the Patriots’ Super Bowl LIII victory over the Los Angeles Rams.
As Skip Bayless explained Monday on FS1’s “Undisputed,” it was the “perfect way” for Gronkowski to cap a sensational career. One aspect of Gronk’s retirement still surprised Bayless, though.
“The surprise for me is that we didn’t hear this a week after the Super Bowl, or maybe at the most two weeks after the Super Bowl — when he goes home, he unwinds, he has a couple of beers and he says finally, ‘I just can’t do this anymore,’ ” Bayless said. “Why did it take this long? Because he’s going to leave his quarterback in even more of a lurch than the quarterback is usually left in. Because to me, the degree of difficulty for Tom Brady at age 42 just continues to go up, up, up, up, up, up, harder, harder, harder, harder.”
Bayless proceeded to mention fellow tight end Jared Cook, whom the Patriots reportedly pushed hard to sign despite him nearing a deal with the New Orleans Saints, and the lack of weapons Brady figures to have at his disposal in New England’s offense next season.
The Patriots already were thin at wide receiver and tight end, and Gronkowski’s retirement only increases the need to bolster one or both of those areas via free agency, trade or the NFL draft in the coming months.
