Rob Gronkowski (born May 14, 1989, Amherst, New York, U.S.) is a former NFL tight end who was one of quarterback Tom Brady’s favorite receiving targets—first with the New England Patriots and later with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Nicknamed Gronk, the fun-loving Gronkowski was one of the league’s most colorful and talented players during his 11-year career, and he won four Super Bowls (2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021).

Early life and college career

Rob Gronkowski is the fourth of five siblings—all boys—born to Gordon Gronkowski, who owned a fitness equipment company, and Diane Gronkowski (later Gronkowski-Walters), who was a full-time homemaker. His father had been an offensive lineman at Syracuse University and signed a contract with the New Jersey Generals of the upstart United States Football League but was cut during training camp. The five boys inherited their father’s athleticism and were a rowdy, roughhousing bunch. They all competed in baseball and hockey growing up but were held back by their parents from starting football until seventh grade.

Gronkowski was a varsity basketball and football player in high school. He especially distinguished himself in the latter as one of his region’s top tight ends, and in his senior year, which he played in Pittsburgh, he was named by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette a first-team all-conference and all-state player. Contrary to his later self-styled persona as a dumb jock, he was also an excellent student, earning a 3.75 grade point average and scoring a 1560 (out of 1600) on the SAT (an aptitude exam) during his senior year at Woodland Hills High School.

After graduating high school in 2007, Gronkowski elected to play at the University of Arizona. During his first two years there, he had 16 touchdowns and 1,197 yards, and in 2008 he earned first-team All-Pac-10 honors. However—in the first of several major injuries to come—he ruptured a disk in his back and sat out his junior year while recovering from surgery. Nevertheless, he had demonstrated enough potential to enter the 2010 NFL draft, and he was selected by the Patriots in the second round with the 42nd pick.

A standout tight end in New England

At the time that Gronkowski was added to the roster, the Patriots, led by quarterback Brady and head coach Bill Belichick, were midway through one of the most successful runs in NFL history, although the team had not won a Super Bowl since 2005. In his 2015 autobiography, It’s Good to Be Gronk (cowritten with Jason Rosenhaus), Gronkowski recalled how demanding Brady had been on him his rookie year: “If I made a mistake, Tom would blast me. In the meeting rooms he was super tough on me. I thought he didn’t like me.” Gronkowski—who at 6 feet 6 inches (about 2 meters) tall and about 265 pounds (120 kg) was above average size for his position—quickly thrived under those high expectations. In his inaugural 2010 season, he caught 10 touchdown passes—three of which came in a single game—for 546 yards.

But he really blossomed the next season, finishing with 18 touchdowns (17 passing, 1 rushing), the second most in the league and the single-season record for a tight end, and earned the first of what would be five Pro Bowl honors. In that season’s playoffs the Patriots returned to the Super Bowl, losing 21–17 to the New York Giants. Gronkowski, limited by an ankle sprain, had a modest two receptions. In the offseason, he had surgery to address the ankle injury. During this time he added to his growing reputation as a hard-partying reveler, going viral on social media twice, first by dancing shirtless at a Super Bowl after-party and then by being photographed with an adult film actress.

Gronkowski was on track for another banner season in 2012, when he broke a bone in his forearm during week 11. After returning to play in the Patriots’ first playoff game, he reinjured the arm; he eventually underwent four separate surgeries for the malady. His bad luck continued during the following season, when in December 2013 he suffered a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee. Gronkowski had a spectacular return to form in the 2014 season. He played in 15 games, notching 12 touchdowns and leading the team in receiving yards with 1,124, en route to winning the NFL AP Comeback Player of the Year. The Patriots returned to the Super Bowl in the postseason, and Gronkowski’s six receptions and one touchdown helped the team narrowly defeat the Seattle Seahawks, 28–24.

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He stayed productive and relatively healthy in 2015, again leading the Patriots in receiving yards, but was limited to eight games in 2016 as a result of various hamstring, lung, and back injuries. He won his second Super Bowl ring during the postseason sitting on the bench on injury reserve. In the 2017 season Gronkowski played in 14 games and surpassed 1,000 receiving yards for the fourth, and last, time. He became only the third tight end to record four seasons with more than 1,000 receiving yards (Travis Kelce later became the fourth). In the postseason Gronkowski battled back from a concussion sustained in the American Football Conference (AFC) championship game in time to take the field in the Super Bowl, where he racked up nine receptions and two touchdowns in a 41–33 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

In Gronkowski’s final season in New England, his regular-season statistics declined, but he remained an important contributor. He amassed 191 yards over the course of the playoffs and helped the team to a 13–3 victory over the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl. But all the years of injuries—including a deep thigh bruise suffered in the Super Bowl—had worn him down, and, at age 29, he announced his retirement. That summer, at an event about pain relief remedies, the famously happy-go-lucky Gronkowski said, “I needed to recover. I was not in a good place. Football was bringing me down, and I didn’t like it. I was losing that joy in life.” He was acclaimed as being among the best tight ends in NFL history. ESPN.com noted that with his great receiving talent and fierce blocking ability, it was as if he had given “the Patriots the option of employing a starting-caliber wide receiver or a sixth offensive lineman on every single snap.”

Last hurrah in Tampa Bay

After a year away from the sport to rest and recover, in 2020 Gronkowski was persuaded by Brady to come out of retirement and join him on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Although he was past his peak as a player, Gronkowski leveraged his toughness and experience to help lead his new team to the Super Bowl. In that game Gronkowski caught two touchdown passes from Brady early on to set the tone for what became a 31–9 rout of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Gronkowski played one more season after that before retiring for good in 2022, ending his career with 621 catches for 9,286 yards and 92 receiving touchdowns.

Personal life and other activities

Gronkowski has been in a relationship with model Camille Kostek since 2015. Beginning in 2019 he has appeared as a studio analyst on several Fox football broadcasts.