Gordon Gronkowski - Growing up Gronkowski: a familys story of raising champions

First Mariner Books edition 2014

Copyright 2013 by The Gronkowski Family with Jeff Schober

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

www.hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

Gronkowski family.
Growing up Gronk : a familys story of raising champions / Gronkowski family with Jeff Schober.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-544-12668-8 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-544-33458-8 (pbk.)
1. Gronkowski, Gordon, 1959 Family. 2. AthletesUnited StatesBiography. 3. Football playersUnited StatesBiography. 4. Fathers and sonsUnited StatesBiography. 5. Gronkowski, Chris, 1986 6. Gronkowski, Dan, 1985 7. Gronkowski, Rob, 1989 I. Schober, Jeff . II. Title.
GV697.A1G73 2013
796.092'273dc23
[B]
2013019374

e ISBN 978-0-544-12635-0
v3.0814

I have three sons playing in the NFL...

GORDY GRONKOWSKI

O N THE FIRST SATURDAY in September, 2010, Gordon Gronkowski sat unobtrusively in the top row of bleachers at Riverside Stadium in Buffalo, New York, wearing sunglasses and a New England Patriots sweatshirt. Considering his location, this was a daring fashion statement. The Patriots had beaten the hometown Bills for fifteen consecutive games, twice a year every year dating back to 2002. But Gronkowski had a good reason for donning that sweatshirt. One of his sons had just made the Pats roster as a rookie tight end.

Unobtrusive is not a word normally used to describe the fifty-two-year-old Gronkowski. With a light brush cut beginning to fleck gray, he is a big man, standing six feet three inches, with a wide chest, hands the size of salad plates, and biceps like snow tires. On that afternoon, he alternately leaned forward and reclined, his back against a cyclone fence, then stood to pace, expression stoic to observers. His mind tumbled with possibilities.

It was opening day for high school football season in Western New York. On the field below, his youngest son, Glenn, nicknamed Goose, had just begun his senior year playing for Williamsville North, a suburban high school. As Gordy watched, Goose lit up the turf, catching a twenty-two-yard touchdown pass, returning an interception fifty-five yards for another score, and kicking four extra points en route to a 3416 victory. It was a good start, another step along the way in the push toward a college scholarship. Although his name carried a pedigree, the kid still needed to perform.

Accompanying Gordy was his second son, Dan, who had driven home from Detroit to fill time during his weekend off. Sporting a backwards baseball cap and zip-up jacket, Dan checked the clock often, concealing his nerves behind sunglasses that matched his fathers. At the far end of Lake Erie, the Detroit Lions brain trust was making final cuts to shape its regular-season team. A second-year tight end, Danny lingered on the bubble. Through 2009 he had bounced between the practice squad and active roster. This summer, he had competed hard during training camp, hoping his efforts on the field would be rewarded. Still, not knowing was difficult. Sitting, waiting, watching the clock... Being with Dad at his little brothers game provided a temporary distraction.

A newspaper reporter wandered by, shook hands with Gordy and Dan, and asked how things were going.

Gordy smiled and said there was no news on Dannys future just yet. But he boasted about his eldest son, Gordie (who spells his name with an ie to distinguish himself from his dad), the one family member who had chosen to pursue a baseball career while the others thrived in football. Gordie had hit a home run for the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League the day before. Twenty-seven, he had been a star at Jacksonville University and former major-league prospect before a back injury hampered his big-league dreams. Dad proudly recited the sons statistics: forty-five games, sixteen home runs, forty-nine RBIs, and a .318 batting average while playing first base and driving toward the playoffs.

An inspiring story, Gordy nodded. Determination has got this kid everywhere.

What about Rob and Chris?, the reporter asked. Have you heard anything from either of them?

Rob was a lock to make the New England Patriots, so long as his back injury did not flare. Through training camp so far, it had not. Hed performed well and impressed the coaches in spite of his youth. The fourth son, twenty-one, Rob had played tight end for two years at the University of Arizona before back surgery wiped out his junior year. Once recovered, he chose to forgo his senior season and leap into the National Football League draft, where the Patriots selected him in the second round, forty-second overall. Rob had speed, blocking ability, and size enough to provide a big target in the end zone for quarterback Tom Brady.

Gordy wasnt worried about Robs chances. But Chris and Danny...

He checked his phone. No new updates. No text messages.

Chris, the middle son, was biting his nails in Dallas, waiting to learn his fate with the Cowboys. Chris had played two years of football at the University of Maryland before transferring to Arizona and finishing his college career, displaying enough brains and athleticism to make the NFL. But he was a fullback, a position that was becoming obsolete. Gone from Texas were the days of Daryl Johnston plowing a hole for a star running back like Emmitt Smith. Now tight ends were employed in an H-back formation. Not many teams kept a pure fullback on the roster. The odds of making the roster were long.

While Gordy paced and fretted, pondering his sons futures, he had no idea that fringe players from the Cowboys training camp were being herded into an office in Dallas. Names were called, and men split into two groups. One went through the near door, while others stayed seated. When the list had been recited, those remaining were congratulated for making the roster. After being handed a playbook, they were instructed to prepare for the season opener in eight days.