Gronk to TB (Tom Brady): A Gronking to Remember

CaptainLaddie

dj paul pfieffer
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Sep 6, 2004
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Christ, guys. Let them do their thing. I love Tom and Gronk and I'll be rooting for them to win a Lombardi provided games happen, outside of them facing the Pats in the Super Bowl.

These guys gave you their all, their everything. Being mad at them for going somewhere else when the QB didn't even get an offer (by all accounts) is just weirdly flavored sour grapes.

Lol boo hoo -- our favorite team didn't even make TB12 an offer, and now he's recruiting Gronk? Who cares? Let them do their thing. We've had almost 20 years of fucking bliss thanks to Tom and to a lesser extent Gronk. Just be happy for them. Stop acting like entitled assholes.
 

snowmanny

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Christ, guys. Let them do their thing. I love Tom and Gronk and I'll be rooting for them to win a Lombardi provided games happen, outside of them facing the Pats in the Super Bowl.

These guys gave you their all, their everything. Being mad at them for going somewhere else when the QB didn't even get an offer (by all accounts) is just weirdly flavored sour grapes.

Lol boo hoo -- our favorite team didn't even make TB12 an offer, and now he's recruiting Gronk? Who cares? Let them do their thing. We've had almost 20 years of fucking bliss thanks to Tom and to a lesser extent Gronk. Just be happy for them. Stop acting like entitled assholes.
Exactly.
 

nolasoxfan

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If that's actually true, I'll eat my own ass with Kelly or syrup. Your choice.

Did Ken Laird hear that from Gronk or Brady?
If you don’t mind me asking, what’s ‘Kelly’? Some kind of Irish hot sauce?
I don’t get out much lately, so I’m not sure what all condiments you kids use these days.
 

Hendu for Kutch

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If you don’t mind me asking, what’s ‘Kelly’? Some kind of Irish hot sauce?
I don’t get out much lately, so I’m not sure what all condiments you kids use these days.
It was supposed to be jelly, but I feel confident enough that this is completely made up that I'm willing to spread anyone named Kelly (first or last name, but not middle - you've got to have standards) on my ass before I eat it.
 

SeoulSoxFan

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A Scud Away from Hell

lexrageorge

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This could be taken in so many different ways.

Maybe TB thought Gronk would need another year to heal and rest. It's simply projection to imply Brady orchestrated Gronk sitting out so they can be reunited somewhere other than with the Patriots.
If what Laird said is true (a huge if given the source), then the above should be the default explanation until we get proof otherwise.

It's probably time to remind folks of the interview Gronk did a few months after his retirement, when he explained some of the pain that he went through and some of the extreme measures he took to stay on the field. The general reaction after hearing that interview was "yeah, he done". Gronk was a TB12 client at one point, so it's quite conceivable that Alex Guerrero told him "Gronk, this is pretty bad; you may want to think about taking some time off". Gronk calls Brady, and Brady tells him "You know, if Alex says it's bad, listen to him".

All of these are far more likely than Brady calling Gronk and telling him to sit out the season to spite the Patriots and derail their season.
 

Average Reds

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You got it backwards, Belichick dumped Brady. And I’m ok with that, as well as Brady taking more and leaving for a team that wanted him more and could surround him with better talent.
I think it was more that Brady gave himself the ability to dump Belichick before he could be dumped. Which is somewhat rational, because he knew that, eventually, Belichick would.

Christ, guys. Let them do their thing. I love Tom and Gronk and I'll be rooting for them to win a Lombardi provided games happen, outside of them facing the Pats in the Super Bowl.

These guys gave you their all, their everything. Being mad at them for going somewhere else when the QB didn't even get an offer (by all accounts) is just weirdly flavored sour grapes.

Lol boo hoo -- our favorite team didn't even make TB12 an offer, and now he's recruiting Gronk? Who cares? Let them do their thing. We've had almost 20 years of fucking bliss thanks to Tom and to a lesser extent Gronk. Just be happy for them. Stop acting like entitled assholes.
I'm not a Pats' fan, but I've been a huge Brady fan since his Michigan days. So, with the acknowledgement that I may not have standing here, I could not agree with this more.

Maybe he heard it from Edelman? If true, Brady deserves and lol, boo hoo for last year.
Wut?
 

DJnVa

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Dec 16, 2010
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Christ, guys. Let them do their thing. I love Tom and Gronk and I'll be rooting for them to win a Lombardi provided games happen, outside of them facing the Pats in the Super Bowl.
Yep, that's my baseline. Sometimes things change when the games start, but I have no problems with it.
 

Hendu for Kutch

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Yep, that's my baseline. Sometimes things change when the games start, but I have no problems with it.
I want TB to do well in Tampa and I want BB to do well in Foxboro. Any other scenario leads to hearing "Once he didn't have Belichick any more..." or "Once he didn't have Brady any more..." arguments from idiots for the rest of our lives.
 

Super Nomario

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I'm still trying to figure out how the team would have fit Gronk under the cap on a 1- year, $10 MM deal, even pro- rated, had he unretired last year.
 

DJnVa

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I'm still trying to figure out how the team would have fit Gronk under the cap on a 1- year, $10 MM deal, even pro- rated, had he unretired last year.
Well, if there were inklings that he would return I doubt AB gets signed.
 

BaseballJones

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View: http://twitter.com/OmarKelly/status/1252814271345385473


Winning SB after SB really kills the love of the sport, eh?
Good lord. Playing for Belichick is hard. Every player ever interviewed that I've seen has said that BB is funny, that he does things that the players love, but that he's very tough and demanding. Plus, winning is always way more fun than losing. Some people don't like that atmosphere. It's ok. Elena Delle Donne (great women's bball player) came to UConn and left after like a day. She said it was because she wanted to be near her sister, which is probably true, but there were stories that she took one look at how hard these players worked under Geno and was like, that's not for me. True? I don't know. Geno is really hard on his players. But you listen to interviews with his players after they leave, and they say he was really hard on them but they know he loves them and they wouldn't trade their UConn experience for anything. I expect BB is like that. You come to NE and you're gonna work like you've never worked before, and yeah, some aspects won't be fun at all. But you know you're going to be made the best you can be and winning is fun.

For some players, they're not into that. Brady lasted 20 years here. Gronk lasted 9 years here. If they weren't enjoying it at ALL, they'd have left LONG before then.
 

j44thor

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Aug 1, 2006
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Brady is in the rare, as in 1 person qualifies, place to actually put himself before the team for once. He has all the rings now he wants to chase Brees/Peyton for the individual accomplishments. I say good for him and hope he throws for 60 TDs and 6K yards next season. At least this way it will be pretty clear when the cliff hits Brady. Tough to gauge that when you are throwing to a hobbled Jules and the island of misfit receivers.
 

Captaincoop

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Barnwell gives the Pats a C for the Gronk trade. Seems really fair - they should have done better than a 4th round pick for a guy who was RETIRED and had a gun to their head.
 

InstaFace

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Sep 27, 2016
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Christ, guys. Let them do their thing. I love Tom and Gronk and I'll be rooting for them to win a Lombardi provided games happen, outside of them facing the Pats in the Super Bowl.

These guys gave you their all, their everything. Being mad at them for going somewhere else when the QB didn't even get an offer (by all accounts) is just weirdly flavored sour grapes.

Lol boo hoo -- our favorite team didn't even make TB12 an offer, and now he's recruiting Gronk? Who cares? Let them do their thing. We've had almost 20 years of fucking bliss thanks to Tom and to a lesser extent Gronk. Just be happy for them. Stop acting like entitled assholes.
The heart wants what it wants. They'll come around eventually, just not yet.

None of their antipathy will last beyond the first time Gronk takes a big head shot, if not way earlier.
 

E5 Yaz

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Seems really fair - they should have done better than a 4th round pick for a guy who was RETIRED and had a gun to their head.
If he had decided to be un-RETIRED without being traded, he would have seriously screwed up the Patriots cap situation. The fourth was the highest retired for a guy who had retired and came back.

The Patriots, the Bucs and Gronk all knew the score on this. There were three options here, and the Patriots chose the one that offered them the best return
 

lexrageorge

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C grade seems about right. 139th pick. Pretty mediocre average trade.
They entered the day having neither Gronk nor the 139th pick. The day ended with them adding the 139th pick. For a guy on the wrong side of 30 coming out of retirement, who was pretty banged up his final season, and with a huge cloud of uncertainty hanging over the entire season. Yeah, pretty mediocre.
 

DJnVa

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Dec 16, 2010
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Omar Kelly has seen the Dolphins have fun going 4-12 and 5-11 for years. He knows what he's talking about.
Gronk and Brady had an average tenure of 14.5 years with one team. The average NFL player spends 3.3 in the league. So they were so anti-BB they spent about 4.5x the average NFL career in one place.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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I'd also add that it's batshit insane to watch Brady/Gronk for all this time and suggest that there was no joy in it, a narrative that has largely been built around comments from players on other teams, players who couldn't hack it in NE, and the annual anonymously sourced offseason clickbait articles suggesting that the marriage is ending.
 

BigJimEd

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They entered the day having neither Gronk nor the 139th pick. The day ended with them adding the 139th pick. For a guy on the wrong side of 30 coming out of retirement, who was pretty banged up his final season, and with a huge cloud of uncertainty hanging over the entire season. Yeah, pretty mediocre.
So what grade would you give it?

I am happy with the trade and wouldn't expect much more if a return if any.

I think the return is pretty much what you would expect. As someone posted earlier or in the other thread, it is a little more than the Lynch trade.
Return seems about average. That's all
 

Captaincoop

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If he had decided to be un-RETIRED without being traded, he would have seriously screwed up the Patriots cap situation. The fourth was the highest retired for a guy who had retired and came back.

The Patriots, the Bucs and Gronk all knew the score on this. There were three options here, and the Patriots chose the one that offered them the best return
Right...which is why Barnwell is being a dick. I think we agree here? Did I need to lay the sarcasm on even thicker?
 

Was (Not Wasdin)

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I talked to my 87-year old mother this morning. Before i could even get out the "good morning, how you feeling today" I got an earful of "How can the Patriots trade Gronk when he was retired?" "How come the Patriots cant make Gronk play for them?" "Why does he get to go to Tampa Bay to play with Brady?" After explaining all of the salary cap and retirement rules to her, she dropped what is likely her strongest possible invective: "Well, that really stinks".

My mother, who has been locked in for 8 weeks with no end in sight, is more pissed off about Gronk than she is about the coronavirus. I fully expect more calls over the course of the day, with more questions.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Where I work we spend a fair amount of time thinking about how to attract retain and train 20 somethings. We talk a fair amount about whether they have different priorities and how to deal with that fact and use it to our advantage. There's a correlation between age and resistance to these efforts.

Just by virtue of his chronological age, I could see where these would be difficult issues for Belichick to contend with and a my-way or the highway approach could possibly reduce the pool of players that can succeed under him. So, it's potentially worth discussing. But it's also very easy to overstate and attempting to apply general notions about how things work in the real world to how things work in the NFL seems potentially hazardous. And, most important, Belichick is perhaps the most adaptable and forward looking coach in the NFL and maybe in its history, so skepticism that he would be unable to figure stuff like that out seems probably a bit misplaced.

I don't think any of this Gronk and Brady stuff is about any of that though. Their desire to do something different and try it a different way in a different environment with a different system and coach seems like the most natural thing in the world. Brady is always hungry to win more but in some respects winning three more in recent years probably takes away any feeling he had that he needed to be in the place where he had the absolute best chance to win and allowed other considerations to come in to play.