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Rob Gronkowski Injury is Not Expected to be Serious

By Dan Schmelzer

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It immediately looked terrible, but reports suggest that the Rob Gronkowski injury is not expected to be serious.

Yea, I thought he was done too. Late in the fourth quarter in the eventual loss to the Denver Broncos, the New England Patriots were trying to pick up yardage and bleed down the clock as they clung to a four point lead. On first down with about three minutes remaining, Tom Brady faked a hand-off, dropped back and fired it in the middle of the field to his star tight end, Rob Gronkowski.

The pass was off the mark, and as Gronkowski reached back to try to make the play, Broncos’ safety Darian Stewart hit him low. Some on social media considered the play dirty, but what else can Stewart do there? NFL rules force him to take on the receiver with a low hit, especially a massive man like Gronkowski. I do not think it was a dirty play.

Unfortunately, Stewart’s hit landed directly on the right knee of Gronkowski, who immediately reached down to grab his knee while screaming and rolling around on the ground in pain. Gronkowski clearly believed that he had blown out the same right knee that he had a few years ago. Patriots Nation collectively held their breaths.

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Gronkowski was immediately carted off of the field, as seemingly were the hopes of the Patriots successfully defending their Super Bowl championship. Sure, they have dealt well with the losses on the offensive line, plus Dion Lewis, Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola, but losing Gronk is a whole different animal.

He is the biggest match-up nightmare in the entire NFL, and there is simply not anyone who can even remotely impact the Patriots’ offense the way that he does. Luckily, the injury may not be as serious as we first thought.

First, video started to surface of Gronkowski walking out of the locker room, and after receiving an X-Ray:

Sure, he has a bit of a limp there, but Gronkowski actually appears to be walking around pretty well. Certainly does not look like a guy who had just torn major ligaments in his knee for the second time.

Then, Albert Breer of NFL Network gave us some real optimism:

Clearly, Breer was not the only one hearing this, as he was soon backed-up. More reputable reporters continued to site sources that Gronkowski may have dodged a bullet, and the knee injury is not believed to be serious.

Obviously we do not know anything for sure, but it appears that Gronkowski may have escaped major injury on the play. He was clearly in pain on the field, but perhaps this was more of a frustration after suffering his major knee injury in the past? Regardless, it appears that we will know something definitive soon, as he is scheduled for an MRI on Monday morning according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who sneaks in even more optimism at the end of his tweet.

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The injury looked bad, but his leg was not planted on the play, so the knee had room to fly freely. I am not anything close to a medical expert, but talks around social media suggest that a relatively minor hyper-extension or sprain are the most likely bets for Gronkowski.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed, and keep an eye out for any news related to the Gronkowski injury. Once the MRI results are released, we will have it here at Chowder and Champions.

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