With a cool $1 million on the line, Tom Brady did what he had to do for best friend Rob Gronkowski. As the then QB sat on the bench during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers‘ 2022 season finale clash against the Carolina Panthers, Gronkowski casually walked up to him, and said, “Let’s go. I need one more.” “One more catch?” Brady asked and nodded his head in agreement. “If I don’t get the seventh catch, I have to go get a real job,” the tight end then joked. So what did Brady do?

He went back on the field, threw a catch to Gronkowski, and helped him secure the million dollar prize from two of the three separate incentives valued at $500,000 each from the Bucs. History is witness that the fondness has always been two-sided, though. After all, you don’t come out of retirement unless there’s a special reason, do you? And for Gronkowski, that special reason was Brady—helping him secure another Super Bowl (which Rob ultimately did). But will the tight end ever repeat that feat again?

Has he ever considered coming out of retirement since then? Well, not really. But that doesn’t mean people are going to stop trying…

On January 29, former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman sat down with his former teammate on ‘Dudes on Dudes’ podcast. In an episode named, ‘The Dude Awards: The BEST NFL Dudes of the Year!’, the duo discussed at length about Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. And boy, did they have some interesting—and wholesome—take on the 28-year-old “Rob Gronkowski version of [a] quarterback”, as quoted by Edelman. But before we get to that…

What took the cake was a rather entertaining story by the retired tight end, about the Bills QB. “[Josh Allen] was trying to recruit me. He’s like, ‘Come on. Come out of retirement. Come to Buffalo…Look, we would do big things,’ and I’m like, ‘We would do big things,’ and all that. But it just never happened.” To this, Edelman jokingly said, “All these quarterbacks [are] trying to steal you.”

Gronkowski: “Yeah they are. Joe Burrow, Josh Allen. I mean, in the end, it just…I was just done with football. It just wasn’t there anymore. But I would have loved to play with Josh Allen, [the] Buffalo [Bills] for at least one year…That’s what was intriguing me when I was even talking to the Buffalo Bills. Yeah, Jules, so a couple big-time quarterbacks have recruited me.”

Notably, this isn’t the first time the former Patriots tight-end has expressed his wish to play for the Bills. Back in January 2023, the 35-year-old had was asked by Sports Illustrated’s Robin Lundberg, who he wanted to play with the most. “I’m just gonna go with a current quarterback who’s playing right now, actually, and I was just talking about him because I do appreciate his game. I appreciate his style of play, and that’s Josh Allen. I mean, how accurate he is, but also just how much he puts himself, you know, on the line for his team, and that’s what it’s all about for a quarterback,” he had said.

Then again, in December 2023, he had chosen Allen as his favorite QB after Tom Brady in a CBS interview. While praising the former Wyoming Cowboys star, Gronk said, “Love his personality, love his attitude. I’m also from Buffalo, so it’s cool to see Josh Allen just be so successful.” However, he also talked about the Bengals quarterback.

What’s more interesting? Well, Gronkowski has always been a Buffalo Bills fan growing up, having born in Amherst, New York, and then spending his childhood at Williamsville, NY (in suburban Buffalo area). “When I was growing up as a kid I, 100%, did want to play for Buffalo. That was THE team. I mean, I was a Buffalo Bills fan. I loved Eric Moulds, Takeo Spikes. That era, right there, was the era where I was really into it. We weren’t really passionate like you see now with Bills Mafia because we were just so busy [sic] with everything going on with my family how I had four brothers so we didn’t really get to get to too many games but we were Buffalo Bills fans [sic] just overall as a whole and definitely always dreamed of playing for them.”

But did you know there was a time when Gronk even hated the Bills? As per a revelation on the  WGR’s Schopp and Bulldog show in November last year, “I was a big Bills fan growing up. Then, when I went to New England, I actually despised the Bills. I was not a Bills fan anymore, but now that I’m retired again, I’m a Bills fan once again, baby. It makes total sense. You can’t take the Buffalo out of me. That’s for sure.” 

Having said that, despite his clear Josh Allen and Buffalo Bills bias, there’s also one other team that’s captured his attention…

Rob Gronkowski predicts Super Bowl LIX champion

Though the Chiefs quarterback is far from Tom Brady’s record of 7 Super Bowls, he is standing on the verge of a 3-peat which even the GOAT couldn’t achieve. It forced the former Patriots TE to make a strange choice.

During his January 29 appearance on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, Rob Gronkowski was asked for his choice of winners in the last 2 Super Bowls, the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII and 49ers in the Super Bowl LVIII. But both of them lost. So, he changed his stance.

Clearly, he does not want Patrick Mahomes to go ahead of his friend, Tom Brady. So, he chose the Chiefs as the winner, even predicting the score 30-26. Hilariously, he also said that since the teams he chooses always lose, he’ll choose the Chiefs this time.

Chiefdom would certainly be not happy with his answer. Just 10 days more, and we will have our champion. Can Patrick Mahomes go ahead? It wouldn’t be easy.