Work smarter, not harder: Rob Gronkowski reveals how he hacked offseason workouts
A little ingenuity goes a long way. And in Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski’s case, it gets you out of daily workouts.
The COVID-19 pandemic created a wrinkle in NFL offseason workouts, leaving players unable to attend team workouts ahead of training camps in July. Instead, they had to do virtual workouts.
Gronkowski was coming out of retirement to reunite with quarterback Tom Brady and join the Buccaneers. He was about 10 pounds lighter in April than during his Super Bowl championship days with the New England Patriots. And he said his body “100 percent needed a rest.”
To show he was getting back in shape and ready for an NFL season, the Buccaneers asked him to provide video proof of his workouts. So Gronkowski did. With a twist.
To get out of the daily grind he recorded himself running sprints wearing different shirts during one day, he told reporters on Monday. Then he sent one video a day to the team.
During virtual offseason workouts, Gronk had to run sprints, record them and send them to the Bucs. So, to get out of it, he'd record himself running sprints in different shirts on the same day. Then, he'd send in the videos on different days.
— Mark Daniels (@MarkDanielsPJ) February 1, 2021
Genius, right? But wait. There’s more to this little gift of Gronk knowledge. Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians praised Gronkowski not but four days ago for his “unbelievable” work ethic.
Bruce Arians on Zoom video conference asked about Tom Brady/Rob Gronkowski's leadership: "I didn't know about Gronk's work ethic. It's unbelievable."
— Ryan Hannable (@RyanHannable) January 28, 2021
Arians isn’t entirely wrong. It takes some smarts to find a way out of that one, which is a certain brand of work ethic. At least that’s what every high school student has been telling teachers over the past nearly one full year of virtual learning.
Gronkowski may have carried over his retirement rest time to offseason workouts with a genius hack, but there’s no doubt he puts in the work. He’ll play in his sixth Super Bowl and go for his fourth championship against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
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