Growing Up Gronk: A Familys Story of Raising Champions
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The home was a neighborhood gathering place. From the basement came primal shouts, sporadic grunts, and calls of “Let’s go!” Friends congregated near the weight benches, working out to an Insanity DVD.
“Sounds like somebody’s getting pumped up,” Chris said with a laugh.
Rob hobbled past on crutches, knee bent to avoid putting weight on his ankle. Protected by a two-piece cast, he was only weeks removed from surgery. His father detailed the procedure, explaining that it was not career-threatening.
“You don’t hear of players retiring because of a bad ankle,” Gordy said. “A knee, yes, but not an ankle. Once it heals, it will actually be better. Wire was wrapped around the stretched tendons, which pull the tendons back together so they’ll heal strong. In the past, doctors would put two screws in from either side and six weeks later take them out. Hopefully that would hold things in place. Now the wires wrap around it and stay in there forever. If he ever hurts that again, it will be very difficult to get that wire apart.”
Although classified as minor surgery, the procedure took nearly three hours. Recovery is expected to last ten weeks. Rob was confident he would be ready to go when Patriots’ training camp began in August.
Plans were underway for a busy off-season. While Rob and Chris continued to heal, Dan spent time in Florida, training so he could make an impact with the Browns in the fall. He also landed a bit part in a movie starring Mark Wahlberg.
The rest of the clan scheduled a trip to Hollywood for NFL Network interviews, photo shoots with various magazines, and even discussions about a reality TV show.
While they see themselves as a regular family from Buffalo, with five rough-and-tumble boys, the Gronks have turned into a national phenomenon. Everyone, it seemed, wanted a piece of the Gronkowskis.
“This doesn’t stop,” Gordy said. “Every single day something comes up.”
As the patriarch, Gordy wants to manage this growing empire and maximize his sons’ successes. At the same time, he walks a fine line, remaining cautious so the bombarding offers do not consume his family.
“We’ve got a product that people want,” he reflected. “But you have to watch out for the sharks. They’re all over right now, take my word. Everyone is trying to get something. I’ve encountered people who talk well, promise the world, drop a hundred freaking names, but they’re useless. We’re trying to keep it balanced, because there is a lot going on right now.”
Even before the incident at Boston’s TD Garden, Gordy saw firsthand how popular Rob was in the week leading up to the Super Bowl. On the streets of Indianapolis, after leaving an evening event, the Gronkowski brothers waited on a sidewalk while Chris left to get his car. People noticed Rob and pushed toward him, seeking his attention, asking for autographs.
“The whole street went crazy,” Gordy said. “We had to run into a bank where security guards locked doors and shut all the shades while we waited for Chris to pull up and get us. We had to hustle Rob into the car. He’s a big celebrity wherever he goes.”
One reason for the exploding popularity, Gordy believes, is that in addition to Rob’s on-field success, he retains an air of silliness. He is still just a big kid enjoying each day. He’s not above poking fun at himself or others, a trait shared by all the brothers.
An example was Rob’s very public lobbying to be on the cover of the video game Madden 13. He took to the airwaves and asked fans to vote for him, even making a home video with his brothers and posting it on YouTube.
Sitting on a couch, his casted ankle elevated, Rob wears shorts and a white T-shirt with sunglasses perched on the crown of his head. With a metal crutch across his lap, Rob looks into the camera and makes an impassioned plea.
“What’s up, Gronk Nation fans? I’m going to tell you why I should be voted for the cover of Madden 13 this year.”
Goose, wearing vintage ’90s-style Zubaz pants, stands before Rob. On command, he pushes down on the crutch, providing resistance while Rob executes several curls to show his dedication to working out. The camera pans right, where Chris does push-ups and Gordie, next to him on the floor, performs sit-ups, using a loaf of bread as a substitute medicine ball. Both of them wear Zubaz pants as well.
When the camera swings back to Rob, he twitches and jerks his head so that his sunglasses drop to the bridge of his nose.
“Grinding no matter what the situation is,” he intones. “Now get hyped and get Gronked! Whoo!”
Their father smiled and shook his head when discussing the video.
“Rob was a goofball about the cover of Madden and people loved it,” he said. “Everybody is so serious, but those knuckleheads threw that thing together. People love their personalities. They can be prim and proper when they need to be, but they’re out there having fun. They’re just enjoying life.”
The individual traits are evident to anyone who meets the brothers.
“Their personalities are all a little different,” said Drew Rosenhaus, the agent who represents Dan, Chris, and Rob. “Rob has a great personality. Dan is more serious, more mature. It might have to do with the fact that he’s the older brother. Chris is the most intense of the three. I’ve met Gordie, the oldest brother, and he’s a fun guy. It will be fun to see how the youngest, Glenn, develops. Each of these guys is special in their own way.”
Glenn Gronkowski, Gordy’s brother, has seen his nephews grow from boys to men.
“I can’t say anything bad about them,” he said. “They’re good kids. They have their priorities straight and that’s the important thing. I don’t want to pick on other people, but they aren’t all tattooed up. They don’t have bling or jewelry, expensive watches or racecars. They’re really grounded young men.”
Brittany Gronkowski, Dan’s wife, ponders the moment nearly ten years earlier when she saw the Gronkowski clan for the first time. As a high school senior, she attended the funeral of a family friend on a snowy February day in Buffalo. The Gronkowskis were there as well.
“I saw all these big guys standing near a black conversion van,” she recalled. “There was a small car, like a Toyota Corolla, parked behind them.”
At the cemetery, cars clustered close to the grave. The van was blocked in, but the owner wanted to leave.
“Their dad and all the brothers surrounded the car, leaned down and counted, one, two, three,” Brittany said. “They picked it up and moved it a few feet, then set it down. They all got in the van and drove away. I rubbed my eyes. Did that just happen? Now that I know them, it makes sense. But at the time, I thought, who are these people?”
Shortly after that, she visited the Gronkowski house, with a hint of trepidation. Brittany was not sure what to expect. Teens gathered in the spacious basement. She enjoyed talking with Dan. She was struck by his courtesy, drawn to someone the same age. The younger brothers, however, recognized a pretty girl and vied for her attention.
“Rob and Chris were showing me their oblique muscles,” she recalled. “I thought those guys were weird. They were asking, ‘Do girls like this muscle? We’ve heard girls like muscles.’” Brittany laughs at the memory of a stereotypical annoying little brother. “Bear in mind that at the time, Rob was in eighth grade.”
“It really didn’t hit me how special these athletes were until Dan and Chris were playing together at Maryland,” Mammoliti said. “I had gone with friends to a sports bar. We were having dinner and somebody put the game on. I was standing there and watched them in the same package on the goal line. I jumped up and yelled, ‘Hey, those are my guys!’”
As their high school coach, Mammoliti is humbled to say he had some contribution to the development of the brothers. He’s thrilled at their successes on the field. Yet he’s also glad that the Gronkowskis are such good people.
“You would be hard-pressed to find five brothers like this,” Mammoliti said. “They are always positive about each other. Sure, they kid and bust each other’s chops, but these guys have each other’s backs and they have from the first day I
met them. It’s a really cool thing to see how close they are.”
Longtime family friend Chris Heim played football with both Rob and Chris when they were kids. In fact, a scar on his arm is a permanent reminder of the time he and Chris blocked a kick in a high school game.
“I’ve known Rob since fifth grade,” Heim said. “He and his brothers are good people to be around. When they made it to the league, they didn’t change. They’re still the same people they’ve always been.”
Success in any endeavor is a result of hard work. Each of the Gronkowskis displays drive and dedication, but with the added advantage of family support. Every brother has fed off another brother’s success. They encourage and push one another, striving toward the next level. This is evident in their game-day rituals. A few hours before kickoff, messages between brothers and their father zing back and forth through cyberspace.
“Remember how hard you worked to get here,” Gordy texts Dan.
“Get hyped and get focused,” Gordie texts Rob.
“I had a better workout than you,” Chris texts Dan and Rob. “But have a good game anyway.”
The messages are meant to amuse but also to reinforce the strength of their family bond.
“It’s a little motivation,” Dan explained. “It helps you focus, knowing you’ve got the support of your brothers and family.”
Still, the Gronkowskis recognize that careers in professional sports can be fleeting. There is a fine line between making a team and being cut. Injuries are only one play away.
Five boys, five star athletes. It is too early in their careers to call it a dynasty, but the Gronkowskis’ success is remarkable, the type of alignment that occurs rarely, once a generation. Sometimes, raised expectations can lead to a quick flameout, or a resentment of the bright lights and media attention.
But by staying true to their values and placing emphasis on family first, that doesn’t appear to be an issue for any of the boys. They are smart, tough, and grounded, focusing on new goals. Get in a good workout, have a great practice, win the game. When the wins pile up, success follows.
So what matters is not the stardom that seems so prominent now. That will be temporary, however long it lasts. What matters is that the family unit is tight. Whenever the attention fades—be it next year, in two years, or a decade from now—the family will remain connected by passion, dedication, and a love of the competition and experiences they have shared, growing up Gronk.
Foxborough, on a bright autumn Sunday. Under the watchful eyes of thousands of screaming Patriots’ fans, a football is booted into a high arc. Giant men charge down the field, colliding into each other with abandon, pushing, clutching, lunging to make a tackle. As the whistle blows, players disentangle and head for the sidelines.
Trotting onto the field is quarterback Tom Brady, with steel in his eyes. Ten other offensive players jog toward the huddle, including big No. 87. Rob Gronkowski, with twin black streaks smudged across his cheeks, leans down to hear the call. On cue, everyone claps and shuffles to the line of scrimmage. The center wraps his huge hand around the ball, checking the defensive scheme. Brady squats behind him, barking orders.
On the far end of the line, Rob puts his hand on the ground and runs through a series of progressions. Excitement courses through him. Background noise dissolves until all he hears is Brady’s curt cadence. Rob can’t wait for the snap, can’t wait to spring forward and collide with a linebacker, then shake loose and sprint across the middle of the field. Playing football has defined his life since eighth grade. Without thinking, a smile crosses his lips.
Scattered across the country, like millions of fans, Rob’s brothers, his mom, and their friends are tuned into television sets, watching to see what he will do.
In an instant, the ball is snapped.
In the stands, Gordy sits anxiously, pushing sunglasses against the bridge of his nose. He watches with arms folded, chest high with pride. That is one of his sons, a star tight end in the National Football League.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my friend Hans Kullerkupp, who suggested this project. Thanks also to my great editors, Susan Ballard and Wynne Everett, and people who contributed their talents to help develop this book, including Mark Pogodzinski (www.nofrillsbuffalo.com), Alex Turnwall (www.hifinit.com), Stuart Shapiro, Jay Mandel, and Susan Canavan. I appreciate everyone who gave their time to be interviewed.
I owe so much to my dad, Tom, my late mother, Mary Jo, and Teri Miranda. I love them all.
While my first choice is to see the Buffalo Bills win a Super Bowl, the next best thing would be for all the Gronkowski boys to win one as well.
—Jeff Schober
I’m so proud of my five sons. Not only are they great athletes, but they’re also great young gentlemen. Thanks to my mom and dad for putting me on this earth and to my brother, Glenn, for showing me the right direction. Frank Viggato, my high school baseball coach, always believed in me. Thanks to coaches Frank Maloney and Jerry Angelo for giving me the last scholarship. I also want to thank Diane for giving birth and helping me raise five wonderful boys.
—Gordy Gronkowski
About the Authors
THE GRONKOWSKI FAMILY includes father, Gordy Gronkowski (shown here), who played football at Syracuse University and is president of G&G Fitness, his sons: Gordie, Jr. a professional baseball player who was drafted by the Angels; Dan, a tight end with the Cleveland Browns; Chris, a fullback with the Denver Broncos; Rob, a superstar tight end with the New England Patriots; and Glenn, “Goose,” who plays Division 1 football at Kansas State. They are from Buffalo, New York.
JEFF SCHOBER is a writer and teacher from Buffalo. He is the coauthor of a true crime book and the author of three novels, Undercurrent, Broken and Profane, and Boneshaker.