Rob Gronkowski announced his retirement a month ago, but many of the people who know him best, including his agent and his girlfriend, don’t think he’s really done.
Gronk insists his NFL career really is over.
“I wouldn’t go back to football. I’m all set. I’m enjoying what I’m doing, and I’m enjoying trying to find what I really, really want to do next,” Gronkowski told Jenna Laine of ESPN. “It was my decision to stop. It was definitely time. It just felt right.”
Gronkowski has been filming commercials this offseason and says he enjoys that kind of low-pressure work.
“I don’t have to be in good shape at all. I got people feeding me, and if I’m slow, I’m slow. It doesn’t matter if I’m quick or not. So it’s wonderful,” Gronkowski said.
Gronkowski said he is thankful to have retired with his health intact and doesn’t want to risk that.
“I feel good. I feel really good. And it feels good to feel good,” Gronkowski said. “Every time I stepped out on the football field, I literally left everything I had. If it was at practice, or if it was at a game, and if I wasn’t feeling my best at the game or practice I still gave everything that I had every single time. So it’s not like I’m looking back, you know, wishing, ‘Man, I should have done that. I should have done this.’ I mean, there’s things obviously you would change. I mean, but that’s learned. That’s how you learn in life. You change it for the next time. But I definitely feel accomplished. . . . I feel accomplished with my career, and, actually, it went way better than I ever thought it could have.”
That doesn’t sound like a man who has any second thoughts about walking away. But whether second thoughts could develop as the season wears on remains to be seen.