Rob Gronkowski Tackles His NFL Days, Competitive Upbringing and Post-Retirement Career in Wide-Ranging Sarasota Talk

The retired tight end was in town as part of the Ringling College Library Association’s Town Hall lecture series.

Rob Gronkowski

Four-time Super Bowl-winning tight end Rob Gronkowski delighted audiences at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on Monday when he spoke as part of Ringling College Library Association’s Town Hall lecture series. In a wide-ranging discussion moderated by Anand Pallegar, the chief executive officer of DreamLarge, Sarasota Magazine’s parent company, the former National Football League superstar discussed his rambunctious upbringing, how he learned to overcome injuries and setbacks and, of course, what it was like to play alongside football greats like quarterback Tom Brady and to be coached by the legendary Bill Belichick.

Gronkowski—known as “Gronk” to fans—grew up in the Buffalo, New York, area with four brothers in a household dominated by sports. He said his parents had one rule: no punching each other in the face and no punching each other in the “cheese puffs” (his words). As a kid, he was drawn to hockey and baseball before shifting his focus to football and basketball in middle school. He admitted he was a “wild” kid whom other people thought would either end up as a professional athlete or in jail.

 “It was either NFL or bust for me,” he said during his talk Monday morning.

But his path to professional football wasn’t direct. After high school, Gronkowski was recruited to play at the University of Arizona (which he says he liked because “you could have your shirt off every day” due to the warm weather). But after two standout seasons, he seriously injured his back and was forced to undergo surgery and take a year off. He wasn’t selected in the 2010 NFL draft until the second round, when he was picked by the New England Patriots.

While he would eventually win three Super Bowls with the franchise, Gronkowski said it was a struggle to earn the trust of Brady, who by that point was well into his record-setting career. It also took him a long time to master the Patriots’ “massive” playbook, he said, and to reach the point where he could play intuitively. “If you’re thinking, you’re beat,” he said. “You just want it to be natural.”

Gronkowski later joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers—also with Brady—and won a fourth Super Bowl before retiring in 2022. Since leaving the sport, he’s launched a media career, appearing regularly on Fox to dissect NFL games; inked numerous endorsement deals; and appeared in movies and on television. During a roundtable discussion with press before his talk on Monday morning, the star said that working as a professional talking head involves conquering his nerves, just like playing football did.

“Even though I played over 100 games, I was always nervous,” he said. “Then, five plays into the game, you get hit a couple times, you make a catch and you settle down. The nerves go down a little bit and it’s like you’re in the backyard playing again.

“That’s the same with public speaking,” he continued. “I’m nervous at first, but then getting into it, after five minutes, you start settling down—you flow with it and it feels natural. It’s cool to have that feeling because it feels like game day, and game day was always the best day.”

The Ringling College Library Association Town Hall lecture series continues with astrophysicist, folklorist and science communicator Moiya McTier on Monday, March 10. For more info, click here.