Rob Gronkowski’s decision to come out of retirement and join forces with Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers raised a lot of questions.
Will the surefire Hall of Famer’s game regress after taking a year off from football? Did he lose too much weight? Can his body still handle the big hits?
And coach Bruce Arians still isn’t sure if he’ll be able to handle the Florida heat, joking that Gronkowski still is in “New England shape.”
But still, the tight end says he couldn’t be happier about trading in his life of leisure to get back to the grind of playing NFL football.
“Oh, definitely no regrets,” Gronkowski told reporters in a video conference Thursday. “I’m here, I’m supposed to be here, I feel like I’m supposed to be here.
“I’m here to play football now and I’m glad to be here. Just going out there, playing ball, it feels good. And let me tell you, at first, the first couple of practices it definitely felt a little weird. The game was really fast when I first got out there again, the defense felt really fast. And as time goes on and the days go on I feel better about myself being out there. My confidence keeps going up, the game is slowing down, I’m starting to pick up the offense more. But overall it’s going good. I’ve got so much more to work on and so much more to improve on but I am really glad to be here.”
We’re just happy to see him out there again, as much as we wish it was for the New England Patriots.
