TAMPA, Fla. — Less than 24 hours after his team’s season ended, Bucs tight end Rob Gronkowski said he’d allow his mind to clear and his 32-year-old body to heal before pondering his football future.
But if forced to decide before decompressing, Gronkowski says he’d retire from the NFL.
“If they’re like, ‘Rob, you’ve got to decide right now, right this second if you’re playing next year,’ I would say no right now,” Gronk told TMZ Sports. “I would be like, ‘No, I’m not playing.’ ”
Hence the reason Gronkowski told reporters Monday his immediate future wouldn’t be a snap decision, saying instead he might wait a month or more. Later Monday, Tom Brady echoed his longtime teammate’s sentiment on his “Let’s Go” podcast.
“I think the point is there’s no really rush for me to figure out what’s next,” Brady told co-host Jim Gray. “I’ll know when I know. It’s a day after the season. So I think for all of us, you know, we can all decompress a bit. It’s been six straight months of football, every day consumed by day-in and day-out football.”
Gronkowski, who turns 33 in May, has totaled 100 catches for 1,425 yards and 13 touchdowns in the two regular seasons since emerging from a one-year retirement to join Brady and Bucs. On Monday, he said his decision to come out of retirement was “definitely solidified being here.”
“I just want to heal completely, see where my thoughts are from there,” Gronkowski told TMZ. “Just let things settle down — got to just heal a little bit. Fix all the bumps and bruises.”
