Why Tom Brady told Rob Gronkowski to ‘stand up’ during Patriots-Chiefs
"They pick up probably too much on those microphone booms."
Amid the back-and-forth drama of the Patriots’ 43-40 win over the Chiefs on Sunday night, NBC microphones picked a humorous pre-play moment between Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski.
During the second quarter – as the Patriots were driving for yet another touchdown – Brady looked over the Chiefs’ defense and decided he needed Gronkowski to switch out of his regular stance on the line-of-scrimmage. So, instead of masking it in the usual language of football audibles, Brady simply told Gronkowski what he wanted.
“Gronk, stand up,” Brady said. And, to no one’s surprise, Gronkowski obliged. Still, Brady didn’t like what he saw in the Kansas City defense and elected to call a timeout.
“Gronk…stand up” -Tom Brady 🗣😂 https://t.co/p3mPFVv2iS
— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) October 15, 2018
On Monday, Brady explained the play during his weekly interview with WEEI’s “Kirk & Callahan.”
“The formation was for him to be in his stance, but based on something I saw, I just wanted him to stand up and just make sure he had good body presence on [Dee] Ford,” Brady said. “Ford was screaming off the edge most of the night.
As for the moment being captured on the TV broadcast, Brady wasn’t thrilled.
“They pick up probably too much on those microphone booms, whatever they are.”
In the aftermath of the game, Brady mentioned the moment in his now-customary postgame Instagram video, also referencing Gronkowski’s stiff-arming of a Chiefs defender in the fourth quarter.
“Gronk, you can line up however you want [if] you keep stiff-arming people like that,” Brady joked.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo8UyTeH-fv/?taken-by=tombrady
