Reckless Joy: What Makes Rob Gronkowski Great Is What Puts Him at Risk
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The bye week is over. The Patriots have returned to practice. So have my mixed emotions about Gronk.
For this neutral fan, watching Rob Gronkowski play football is akin to the dilemma faced by owners of expensive classic sports cars. The pleasure afforded by driving one is undermined by the anxiety that doing so exposes the cherished possession to the hazards of the road. I love to see the spectacular plays turned in by the Pats’ tight end. I also know those plays are part and parcel of the considerable danger Gronkowski creates for himself on the field.
Gronk is my favorite Patriot to watch by a wide margin. My admiration for Tom Brady is deep and abiding, but Gronkowskl makes me smile. It isn’t just his supreme combination of strength, speed and agility that appeals. Jimmy Graham of the Saints has those attributes as well, yet to me he’s just another estimable All-Pro. Gronk’s zest for the game sets him apart. He plays cheerfully, a rare attribute in a grim sport. No man reaches the National Football League without consistent reckless disregard for his body’s well-being. For Gronkowski, recklessness appears to generate joy.
Rob Gronkowski hauls in a 6 yard touchdown reception beating Chicago Bears Ryan Mundy during first quarter action at Gillette Stadium on Sunday October 26, 2014.
There is also the case to be made that Gronkowski is the most valuable Patriot, not just the one I like most. His individual performance in 2014 and the performance of the entire New England offense are directly correlated.
In the first four games, gradually re-adapting to NFL speed, Gronkowski averaged three catches for 39 yards, New England went 2-2 and people were asking if Brady had lost it. Since then, returning to Full Gronk mode, the tight end has averaged seven catches for 103 yards a game, the Pats have won five in a row and been the highest-scoring team in the league.
As long as we’re on statistics, here are the ones that temper the fun Gronkowski gives me. He’s all of 25 years old. In four and one half seasons in pro football, he’s had three surgeries on three different body parts: forearm, back and knee.
I’ve been watching football for a long time now, longer than there has been a Patriots’ franchise. I know that players who live on the outside of the envelope of football’s dangers tend to fall off the envelope sooner rather than later. When Gronk is at full throttle as he has been for the past month, he reminds me most of Earl Campbell. Campbell’s career was full of glory – short-lived glory. He was more than a match for any single opponent, but he couldn’t beat the entropy of endless contact.
All NFL players are at risk of serious injury on every play. Look at Carson Palmer, whose knee gave out without being touched last Sunday. But there are degrees of risk, and Gronkowski lives close to the maximum degree.
There are two kinds of collisions in football, the short-range struggles between huge men at the line of scrimmage and the higher-speed collisions between smaller men downfield. Rest assured, they both hurt like hell. Each form takes a toll. Thanks to Gronkowski’s combination of physical gifts and the position he plays, he gets to do both.
Gronkowski is a superior run blocker. To my mind, that’s hiring Picasso to paint your kitchen, but I defer to coach Belichick’s expertise there. Wrestling defensive ends and linebackers puts a lot of stress on, well, the arms and back.
Receiving is what Gronk is well paid for. I assume no other defensive coordinator will be so daft as was Jack Del Rio of the Broncos and forget to have someone assigned to chuck Gronkowski at the line on every play. There’s more upper body contact.
Except for the occasional touchdown, passes end in high speed collisions. That’s where Gronkowski’s lower body is exposed to the danger created by his own size and speed. T.J. Ward took a lot of heat for slamming into Gronkowski’s knees last season, but walk a mile in his cleats. You are an NFL defensive back facing Gronk in the open field. Where are you going to try and tackle him, around the chest?
The Bears Al Louis-Jean hangs on and tries to bring him down, but he is no match for the power of Gronk.
It’s a well-known fact of NFL life that running backs are pretty much done by age 30. The damage done by repeated collisions wears them out, even if they’ve been lucky enough to avoid major downtime injuries. Gronkowski has a running back’s soul in a tight end’s body. Fifty years ago, he’d have been a fullback, like Jim Brown. Brown never avoided a collision. He also retired at 30.
So I watch Gronk with pleasure tainted with guilt and anxiety. I want him to keep making those amazing plays, but I don’t want the risks they create on my conscience. I don’t want the Rob Gronkowski Day halftime ceremony at Gillette Stadium to take place in 2017.
For those Pats fans who think discussing Gronkowski’s medical history is mere mellow harshing, I will add that I don’t think I’m alone. The Pats personnel who ran to the tight end when he went down after a play earlier this season resembled the mob storming the ring after Ali knocked out George Foreman in Zaire. After all, Gronkowski is THEIR classic sports car. The rest of us just watch it drive by.
It’s encouraging that the Pats have been careful car owners. It’s more encouraging that Gronkowski himself has been as prudent a patient as he is reckless as a player. Gronk has never returned from injury unless convinced he was fully healthy. As this season shows, the Pats won’t use him to the limit unless they are, too.
May such prudence continue and grow. I hope he’s allowed to take a few more running plays off. And though it will slightly diminish my spectating pleasure, I hope Gronk makes collision avoidance one of his athletic skills, too.
I’d rather have Rob Gronkowski provide me a little less fun for a lot more seasons to come.
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