With Tom Brady retiring for a second time Wednesday, it allowed his former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammate Rob Gronkowski to take a trip down memory lane.
Gronkowski, who posted a comical and heartfelt tribute to Brady in wake of the announcement, revisited his favorite moment from playing alongside the legendary quarterback for 11 seasons while appearing on the "Up and Adams" show Thursday.
There certainly are plenty of highlights of the two for Gronkowski to choose from, but he flashed back to a 2014 regular-season road game against the Indianapolis Colts. It came on a 26-yard touchdown pass with Gronkowski putting together an other-worldly effort to get into the end zone.
But for Gronkowski, the most noteworthy part of the play was celebrating with Brady in the end zone.
"The Super Bowl games and all that, those were unbelievable. Those will always go down in history," Gronkowski told host Kay Adams. "But the one moment that him and I had together it was versus the Indianapolis Colts. ... It was the fourth quarter and he threw me an out-route. I turned it up. I planted my foot, I did a 360 and I turned it up the field. Made a couple guys miss. Julian Edelman absolutely decked the safety for me to get me into the end zone to free me up totally. Then I jumped up into the air, flipped into the end zone.
"I'm just celebrating in the end zone and all of a sudden, someone jumps on my back. Tom ran full speed across the whole field and just jumped up in the air high as he could to celebrate with me. He jumped on my back and he went for a piggyback ride."
Gronkowski admitted that he didn't even know who was on his back due to the adrenaline from scoring an electrifying touchdown. It wasn't until the next day that Gronkowski was surprised to find out it was Brady.
"I didn't even know who it was," Gronkowski said. "At that moment, I was just so excited. You kind of black out on big-play moments. I kind of blacked out. And then later on the next day, there's this picture of Tom on my shoulder with his head right here next to me going for a piggyback ride. I was like, 'Dude, Tom, that was you who jumped on my back?' Just because in that moment there's so much going on. It was just so cool to see that picture. It was my favorite picture of all-time that we have together."
Gronkowski said he plans to frame the picture for his house in the future and will ask Brady to sign it.
It certainly had to be a thrilling sequence of events for the two. Gronkowski put it best by calling it a "picture-perfect moment" for the two all-time legends.
