Rob Gronkowski has done a lot in his 11-year career, and it likely would’ve been more had he not spent a season away from the game.
This past Sunday, the bruising Bucs tight end’s vaunted connection with Tom Brady produced another major output, with the future HOF QB hitting the future HOF TE seven times for a game-high 123 yards in a 38-31 win over the Colts. The stat line also served as a season-high for Gronkowski, who’s missed five games and left early in two others.
The monster performance moved the 32-year-old within one game (30) of Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez’s record for most 100-yard games by a tight end (31), a mark he could pass this season. The boisterous pass-catcher expressed his eagerness to topple Gonzalez’s accolade during an appearance on NFL Total Access on Tuesday.
“Let me tell you, I’m trying to break that record,” Gronk told NFL Network’s Willie McGinest. “I mean, why wouldn’t I try to break that record? I’m coming for it. Tony, I’m coming for it. Basically, you got every record so I’m coming for this one and it’s a pretty cool one, too, for sure. It just shows that I guess you’re a baller and Tony’s a baller.”
Believe it or not, Gronk’s latest quest to break another record isn’t even his first encounter with history this year. He and his pal Brady set the record for most passing touchdowns by a quarterback-pass catcher tandem in NFL history during Tampa’s Super Bowl LV win in February.
With three other individual records already to his name, including most TDs in a season by a TE (17, 2011), Gronk has six chances left in the regular season to record two more 100-plus yard games and become the new standard.
For what it’s worth, it’s been five years since Gronk posted back-to-back 100-yard games. We’ll see if he can pull off an encore effort and tie Gonzalez on Sunday against the Falcons, one of the HOFer’s former teams.
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