Rob Gronkowski, dirt-biker, doesn’t have time for football

Rob Gronkowski skipped the New England Patriots’ optional workouts because he’s busy working on his dirt-bike skills.

New England Patriots tight end and the NFL’s foremost goofball, Rob Gronkowski, hinted following the Super Bowl that he might consider hanging up his cleats in the near future. What he didn’t tell us was what he was going to do instead. On Saturday, he may have given us his first clue.

Gronk, who was absent from the Patriots’ optional workouts last week, and will skip more workouts coming up, explained his decision as follows: “I’ve got dirt-biking skills to work on.” That sounds about right given the guy’s track record.

This being Gronk, however, there’s turned out to be a little more to it. The tight end was promoting Supercross dirt-biking in his capacity as a spokesman for Monster Energy drink. Then again, many careers begin as marketing ploys, so perhaps this is the beginning of something great.

This was relatively tame as far offseason Gronk shenanigans go, and as of right now there are no actual, real reasons to think he won’t be suiting up for the Patriots when the season rolls around, but if he is looking for a new career, dirt-biking could be the way forward.

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New England starts the 2018 season at home against the Texans, before a Week 2 trip to face the Jaguars. As usual Gronk should feature heavily in Bill Belichick’s offense. Whether the NFL proves an appropriate venue to show off his dirt-biking skills remains to be seen.