Rob Gronkowski quite literally left his mark on the New England Patriots organization as he rode off into the sunset.
Gronkowski and the Patriots were celebrated for their Super Bowl LIII victory at the Boston Red Sox’s home opener back in April, just a few weeks after the five-time Pro Bowl selection announced his decision to retire from football. And of course, the now-former tight end stole the show with his patented antics.
Prior to making his way onto the diamond to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, Gronkowski put a dent in one of the Patriots’ Lombardi Trophies as he mimicked an at-bat with the help of Julian Edelman. Gronk offered further insight into what went down at Fenway Park during a recent appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show.”
“Oh, man. We were just messing around and Julian, you know, was pretending to be the ace pitcher,” Gronkowski said. “I just hopped up and pretended I was at bat because we were waiting there for a little bit so we started goofing off. I actually bunted it. I can’t do a swing, but I was like, ‘I’ll do a bunt.’ I didn’t think it was going to do anything to the trophy. I didn’t even think about it and then I handed the trophy off to a teammate and he’s like, ‘Yo, you dented the trophy’ and I was like, ‘No way.’ So then we finally saw it and we lost it. I wasn’t really in a panic, though. Our PR guy was like, ‘Rob, what are we gonna do?’ and I was like ‘I don’t know.’ I was like, ‘We’re gonna go hold it up in front of the fans.'”
Gronkowski didn’t face any consequences for the dent, but if he’d been called into question, he was prepared to throw the Super Bowl LIII MVP under the bus.
“It all went smooth, no one got in trouble,” Gronkowski said. “It’s actually something that’s pretty cool now because everyone hits me up like, ‘Yo, I’m gonna go see the trophy in the Patriots Hall of Fame.’ Everyone goes and sees it and sends me pictures of them with the trophy with the dent in it. So it’s kind of like a thing now, but I already knew what to say if I was going to get in trouble. Like, Julian threw the pitch. If he just didn’t throw the pitch, it would’ve never happened.”
That line of thinking certainly is on-brand for Gronk.
As it stands, there have been no reports of the dent being buffed out. In fact, the Patriots had a good laugh about it during their championship ring banquet last month.
