Rob Gronkowski is no match for Bill Belichick in this game of tug-of-war
Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski geta a pat on the shoulder from head coach Bill Belichick following a first quarter reception against the Texans.
COMMENTARY
The New England Patriots are 11-2 and back in the top spot in the AFC playoff picture after Sunday night’s 27-6 win over the Houston Texans. But it may have been a smaller victory behind the scenes prior to the game that truly reestablished the Patriots as legitimate Super Bowl contenders after two straight losses.
Perhaps the fact that tight end Rob Gronkowski suited up, played, and played effectively against the Texans, came as a surprise to most everyone except for Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, the team’s medical staff, and whomever has the thankless duty of relaying Papa Gronk’s concerns to New England’s front office. It was, after all, only two weeks ago that the image of the tight end writhing in pain on the snow-flecked field in Denver led everybody to instantaneously assume he had suffered a debilitating knee injury, one that would certainly be the final blow to the Patriots’ chances of winning a fifth Lombardi Trophy this season.
Except, Gronkowski’s knee turned out to only be bruised and his absence was only endured for one game, last week’s uncharacteristic loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Four days after that defeat, Gronkowski was back, high-fiving his coach in a surprise appearance at practice.
A week after the mistake-marred setback against the Eagles, Gronkowski was catching his 10th touchdown pass of the 2015 season in Texas, successfully blocking in the run game, and putting the swagger back in a Patriots offense that had been lacking Tom Brady’s top two receiving targets in No. 87 and wide receiver Julian Edelman.
“Yeah, I mean he missed one game,’’ Belichick said when asked what Gronkowski’s return to the team meant Sunday night. “So….’’
While that’s understating things just a tad, Belichick didn’t get much more effusive about the impact of his tight end when asked a follow-up question.
“Yeah, it’s good to have every player we get back,’’ he said. “We want all the players out there.’’
Keeping with the tone of such postgame comments, it’s not exactly common to see Belichick going all Pete Carroll pumped and jacked with any player during a midweek practice, but there he was playing for the cameras with Gronkowski during the media portion of last Thursday’s practice. The display led some to think that maybe the whole thing was a ruse, a smokescreen to get inside Texans head coach Bill O’Brien’s head about the availability of the game-changing Gronkowski ahead of the Sunday night showdown.
The real truth was behind Door No. 2. Belichick was winning the Gronk Game. Belichick needed Gronkowski back as soon as possible. He got him back after just a week on the sideline.
“There was urgency and there wasn’t urgency,’’ Gronkowski said after his four-catch, 87-yard performance on Sunday. “Obviously I want to be back out there with my teammates, be back out there playing football. When you miss a game it’s just hard to watch, you want to be out there playing football making plays and at the same time you just have to be smart about it, which we were. The organization, myself, just rehabbing really hard and everything checked out, everything felt good, so I was good to go.’’
“Good to go’’ doesn’t necessarily equal “100 percent’’ though.
The latter was the bar the tight end set for his return on Dec. 1, in a Bleacher Report video released not long after the bizarre joint-statement from the team and his family updating the public about his injury.
“I’ll be working hard to get back out on the field as soon as possible, and when I’m 100 percent, feeling good, cleared by all the doctors, the team, that’s when I’ll be back, and there’s no timetable for that,’’ Gronkowski said in his video update.
Against the Texans on Sunday, Gronkowski wore a brace on his injured knee, but otherwise looked so natural back on the field that NBC’s Al Michaels somewhat mocked him after he caught the touchdown pass at the end of the first half, pointing out that only two weeks ago in Denver it appeared his career might be in jeopardy.
Nobody has seriously been accusing Gronkowski of overselling the injury that night in Denver, though comparing it to Paul Pierce’s wheelchair incident might be a fair jab in hindsight. But reports of previous run-ins between the team and the Gronkowski family over return timetables made the multiple messages and means of communication around this injury hard to ignore.
Belichick seemed clearly annoyed when he had to address the joint statement on his tight end’s injury earlier this month.
“We did what we did,’’ Belichick responded on Dec. 2 when asked if the team had known about Gronkowski’s video before it was released. “If you have any other questions, really you should take it up with our public relations department, which is very capably run by Stacey [James] and his staff.’’
No matter what was going on behind closed doors, Brady had to be frustrated on the field that he didn’t have his security blanket in the loss to Eagles, leaving him throwing to Drops McGees Brandon LaFell and Scott Chandler.
All this for a bruise?
At some point between last Wednesday’s practice — which Gronkowski didn’t attend — and Thursday’s appearance, Belichick’s influence seemed to get him his tight end back. No Papa Gronk, no endorsement concerns, no fear of past injuries and setbacks.
The Patriots needed a win in Houston badly. They must have wanted that win in Houston even worse after watching both the Bengals and Broncos lose earlier in the day.
They got one, but not before Belichick had already emerged victorious.
“Just was going through the process throughout the week,’’ Gronkowski said Sunday, “seeing how practice went, seeing how I was feeling after practice and all, I mean just basically all the way up to the game just making sure I was planning on playing and making sure everything checked out throughout the week and everything did. It went well, feeling good and it’s great to be back out there with the team.’’
After the win put the Patriots back in the driver’s seat in the AFC, Gronkowski avoided answering all questions about what point during the preceding week he realized he might be able to go, and would only talk about the Texans when asked what went through his mind after Denver.
“Let’s just talk about the game,’’ he said. “I played. Just worked hard to get back out there. Just missed my teammates and all. Just want to talk about the game.’’
Hmm.
“He is just a huge influence on what we do offensively and he really toughed it out so I am proud of him,’’ Brady said on Sunday night. “He had a big touchdown catch. He is obviously a big part of what we do. It is good having him out there.’’
Belichick won the Gronk Game this time.
Still hope he’s invited on the cruise.
Contact Eric Wilbur at: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @GlobeEricWilbur and Facebook www.facebook.com/GlobeEricWilbur.
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