Gronk began thinking about getting away from the game two years ago

[Pat Patriot]

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After Super Bowl LII in Minnesota, Rob Gronkowski was asked if he would retire from the NFL and he took some time during the offseason before finally returning to play for the Patriots in 2018.

The gap between the end of the season and a decision to play was a sign that Gronkowski was thinking about making the retirement decision that ultimately came this offseason. During an appearance on The Shop: Uninterrupted on HBO, Gronkowski said that the first thoughts about getting away from the game came in the summer before that trip to the Super Bowl.

“It was about like two years ago there was a game changer in my life,” Gronkowski said. “I was trying to go out to the practices in the summer and I was getting smoked by every rookie. I felt in order to do something bigger in life, in order to get to a higher stage, I felt like I had to get away from the game and focus on my health. I lived the typical party life. I was eating f—–g s–t every second. I was just trying to put on weight, I was living that life. At the same time, I was going out and playing f—–g football and running people over, getting the f–k ran over.”

The show features a group of men sitting around a barbershop set and one of the others pointed out that “those things don’t go together” in response to Gronkowski’s comment. Gronkowski came to that realization as well and the first NFL season without him since 2010 is set to kick off on Thursday night.