Brady and Gronkowski, in training with Tampa Bay.Douglas P. DeFelice / Getty Images
The Tom Brady effect is contagious.
The
quarterback
made the Patriots successful, a team that had won nothing: from zero Super Bowl titles to six.
Up to 218 different players have accompanied Brady (California, 43 years old) to play the NFL grand final in the last 20 years.
One of them has been a bull named Robert James
Rob
Gronkowski (New York, 31 years old).
The 1.98-meter tight end won three championship rings and in a sudden decision retired at the age of 29, sidelined by concussions, fractures and tears.
A chain of unexpected events led both players to a low-key team, Tampa Bay, becoming the second-best NFL duo of all time and reaching the Super Bowl.
Brady and Gronwkowski were two underrated players in the selection process, the
draft
.
The historic quarterback was signed by the Patriots for the 199th pick in 2000. Gronk
he was picked 42nd in 2010. The man who trusted them was Bill Belichick, the Pats coach and regular talent scout.
Both players agreed in nine seasons and reached five Super Bowl games, with the triumphs of (2015, 2017 and 2019).
Gronwkowski, charged with hitting on offense and catching passes, was a regular in the infirmary.
“I had nine surgeries, probably 20 [concussions] in my life.
I remember five in which I passed out, "he said in an interview with CBS.
He retired in 2019, but was not separated from the media spotlight.
Gronk, who loves to participate in whatever commercial is presented to him, signed a contract last March with the largest professional wrestling company in the United States, WWE, to get into the ring occasionally.
His first great foray into the ring, and where he was hooked on adrenaline, had occurred in 2017 during a fleeting intervention in the largest event of the company and even, already in 2020, he won a championship.
His career as a
showman was
just beginning until something began to move in Tampa (Florida).
Tom Brady, after two decades with the Patriots, decided to don
the Buccaneers
jersey
.
The news shook the NFL and the sport because it was like watching Michael Jordan put on the Washington Wizards uniform and not the Bulls uniform.
Before the arrival of the new
quarterback
, the Bucs had not reached their stellar plans since 2003, the year they lifted the Vince Lombardi trophy in the Super Bowl.
The forecasts saw a Brady with good competition near retirement.
What they found was a team that found a leader on the field with a $ 50 million two-year contract.
In building the Brady Buccaneers, Rob Gronkowski raised his hand to play again.
The Patriots, who had already suffered the departure of their legend, negotiated the hiring of the athlete.
According to Gronk, Tampa was the only place he wanted to play.
“Everyone keeps asking me if Tom brought me.
Obviously Tom's arrival helped, but he was like the appetizer, there are other reasons, ”said the player.
The Bucs, injected with Brady-Gronkowski adrenaline, won 11 games and lost just five in the regular season.
They managed to qualify for the
playoffs
, on their way they removed Washington from the classification and, above all, they eliminated two of the great favorites: New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers.
Last November, the Bucs duo became the second-highest scoring pair in history, at 96, behind only the Colts' Peyton Manning-Marvin Harrison tandem (114).
If Gronkowski has patented something, it is his celebration after each
touchdown
, he calls it the
Gronk spike,
in which he smashes the oval ball against the ground at almost 60 miles per hour, according to an MIT study for the
Boston Herald.
That move, a delicacy for advertisers, is waiting to go on stage at the Super Bowl thanks to a pass from Brady.
As in his best times against Patrick Mahomes' effervescent Kansas City team.