Rob Gronkowski made his usual appearance on Up & Adams with Kay Adams on Wednesday. The future Hall of Fame tight end played 11 seasons in the NFL with Tom Brady. Now they both work for FOX.
In the wake of Brady making his debut in the booth for FOX on Sunday, Adams asked Gronkowski what he thought of his former teammate's performance. Gronkowski gave an honest assessment, saying Brady made some mistakes, but was good overall and would learn and only get better in his new role.
"It was definitely a rookie debut,' Gronkowski told Adams. "He was like a quarterback that was picked number one overall. All the hype in the world. And he came through. He did come through, but he had a lot of jitters, that's for sure. Not a lot, but he had some jitters. He made some great plays."
"There was some plays that he missed I feel like. He missed some blitzes coming through the gap and he didn't pick 'em up. So he's got a lot to learn, but he came out with a win. He had a solid defense with Kevin Burkhardt right there to help him get that victory. So just overall I'm kind of comparing him to a rookie quarterback because he was a rookie in the booth over the last week."
"But he has a lot to improve on and he's just going to keep dominating and getting better every single week."
He went on to say that Brady did a great job in his debut considering the difficulty and incredibly high expectations his former teammate faced. He also addressed the idea that people wanted Brady to be a guy they were having a beer with.
"I've watched plenty of games with Brady," Gronkowski said. "But I would say more at the facility. That's kind of more what people are looking for. Not Tom Brady on the couch with a beer just chopping it up with his buddies.
"I would say the Tom Brady that people are looking for is him in the meeting room with his teammates explaining defenses. Explaining the techniques that you need. Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the opponents."
Gronkowski also blamed Mike Pereira for the most awkward moment of Brady's first game, comparing the rules analyst to a player not paying attention to the snap count on fourth down. Overall, it was a pretty fair and honest assessment of Brady's debut from someone who knows him well.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rob Gronkowski Offers Honest Critique of Tom Brady’s FOX Debut.
