The New England Patriots started the season without star tight end Rob Gronkowski, and his season was then cut short when he tore his ACL after a hit by safety T.J. Ward in a Dec. 8 game against the Cleveland Browns. The previous season, 2012, he also had an injury shortened year.
Heading into 2014, Gronkowski is looking to break that trend and play the whole season.
“I’m planning on playing the whole season this year,” Gronkowski said Friday at a women’s football clinic, according to Mike Reiss of ESPN.com.
“I’m always antsy to get back on the field, no matter when it is,” he said. “I just want to play football. I love playing the game.”
While Gronkowski might be ready for the September 7th season opener, he might miss the start of training camp.
“I don’t know yet until I report, so I’ll sit down with the coaches and training staff and we’ll see,” he said. “I’m just working with the trainers right now, improving every single day and whenever it starts up, whatever the trainers have, whatever the coaches have for me, whatever we feel comfortable with [we’ll be] doing as much as possible every day that I can do.”
Gronkowski is a huge part of the Patriots offense and having him in the line up is a priority. He was limited during OTAs and could start the season on the active/physically-unable-to-perform list.