During his playing career in the NFL, Rob Gronkowski was widely regarded to be the best tight end in the league and arguably the best tight end to ever play the game, with four Super Bowl titles to his credit when he finished his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Although he had the bulk of his success with the New England Patriots, winning three of his four Super Bowls under head coach Bill Belichick, things didn’t end well with the two sides as the team tried to trade him to the Detroit Lions.
In a genius move by Gronkowski, he acted like he was retiring from the NFL in order to void the trade to the Lions, which actually worked and was ironic as he ultimately ended up with the Buccaneers to win another title playing with longtime teammate Tom Brady.
Gronkowski recently opened up about the story of how he got out of being traded to the Lions at the tail end of his time with the Patriots, via FOX Sports: NFL.
“I’m retired, how can you trade me?” Gronkowski said, recounting this hilarious moment.
Gronk really faked retirement to avoid playing for the Lions 🤣 pic.twitter.com/NaDY6BdOZp
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) February 27, 2024
It was a classic move by Belichick to move off a veteran star before they fell off, as he tried to move the future Hall of Famer to Detroit in the same way he wanted to move off Brady.
Obviously, Belichick’s tactics didn’t exactly work, as the Patriots were never the same without Brady and Gronkowski, leading to him getting fired after this past season.
Gronkowski and Brady had the last laugh as they won a title with the Buccaneers before calling it a career.
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