Chase Owens
For those of you wondering, no, this is not an article trying to support Julian Edelman, no matter how many people think he deserves to be in the HOF. Personally, if Isaac Bruce is not in the Hall of Fame, a man who accumulated 15,208 yards and 91 touchdowns (just regular season stats), then I do not believe that Julian Edelman, who only has 5,930 and 30 touchdowns, deserves to be in. No, this article is about whom the New England Patriots took with the 42nd overall pick in the 2010 draft. A man who has accumulated 521 receptions, 7,861 yards, and 79 touchdowns. If you add in the playoffs, this man has 81 more catches, 1,163 yards, and 12 more touchdowns, bringing his total to 602 catches, 9,024 yards, and 91 total touchdowns. He has accumulated all of these numbers while having only played 131 of his 164 possible games. Yes, the man you are thinking of is Rob Gronkowski, otherwise known as Gronk.
Now, many of you may be thinking that Rob Gronkowski is often too hurt and not in enough games to make the hall of fame. If you made that claim you could be right, you could reference that he fell in the draft due to his back problems, even though many had him as the best overall player in that draft. You could point out the Gronk has missed 2 AFC championships, both of which the Patriots lost. He has even missed a Super Bowl, although the Patriots won. Injuries have plagued Gronk’s entire career, which could lead you to believe that he doesn’t deserve the Hall of Fame, but for two simple reasons I would say you’re wrong. First, you have his statistics and secondly just the personal eye test will tell you differently.
First, we will dive into the statistics that back up why Rob Gronkowski is a Hall of Famer. As stated earlier he has 602 catches, 9,024 yards and 91 total touchdowns. He’s also a 5 time First-Team All-Pro, a 5 time Pro-Bowler, and a 3 time Super Bowl champion. Let’s just look at the other members of all the Hall of Fame, and see how he stacks up with those. There are currently eight tight-ends in the HOF and they are: Dave Casper, Mike Ditka, John Mackey, Ozzie Newsome, and Charlie Sanders, Shannon Sharpe, Jackie Smith, and Kellen Winslow. We will also include Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates as they will most likely be HOF. While he is last in the amount of games played as you would expect, he is 2nd in all pro selections, 3rd in touchdowns, 1st in 1,000 yard seasons, and 1st in playoff touchdowns, So in scoring points, and getting yards Gronk is one of the best to ever do it. Being in that kind of company can only make that almost a certainty.
Now it’s all about the eye test. People always talk about the eye test, as in what do their own 2 eyes see. When I look at Rob Gronkowski I see a 6’6 265 pound man who runs past linebackers and bodies safeties. A man who has the body control to go down and get low thrown balls, or the hand size to make one handed catches in traffic. He also has ground breaking runs where it just seems as if before the play he had decided no one was going to tackle him.
To show his speed and strength watch this one
If you want to see his amazing body control watch this one
If you love one handed snags check this play out
And last but not least of you love plays where players just know they are going to score then check these 2 plays out
I know that there is no way you watched all of those plays, so I am going to give you an opportunity to go back and do that. Did you do it? Good. These plays are just a few among many that truly show who Gronk is and what he is capable of.
Rob Gronkowski is a stat churning warrior, who did it in less games than others, and also flat out just makes plays that allow his team to be in the best position to win. He is a Hall of Famer, no ifs ands or buts about it.