New England Patriots - NESN.com
The New England Patriots celebrated the best tight end in franchise history when signing Rob Gronkowski to a ceremonial one-day contract. Before watching his longtime team defeat the New York Jets, Gronkowski honored some of his most decorated peers.
Gronkowski selected his Mount Rushmore of NFL tight ends on Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” pre-game show. He excluded himself from the mix but started by naming a legend sitting next to him, Tony Gonzalez.
The 36-year-old marveled over the position’s all-time leader in catches and receiving yards, who played 17 seasons until retiring at age 37.
“You basically lead every category out there, and you played for so long as well, which is just remarkable,” Gronkowski told Gonzalez. “I don’t know what you did to take care of your body. You should have shared me some secrets.”
Gronkowski then picked recent Hall of Fame inductee Antonio Gates, who leads all tight ends with 116 career touchdowns.
“Love that guy,” Gronk said of Gates. “Love his game.”
For his third choice, Gronkowski praised the “very remarkable” Travis Kelce. The Kansas City Chiefs star is the only tight end with more career postseason touchdowns (20) than Gronk (15).
After deliberating on his fourth and final choice, Gronkowski quickly co-signed Charissa Thompson’s suggestion of Shannon Sharpe.
“I saw some clips the other day, and he was running down that field like no other,” Gronkowski said of Sharpe. “He can move. He can run by defenders, and he can create that deep ball. Which is rare for a tight end to do.”
Most others performing the same exercise would likely include Gronkowski on their tight end Mount Rushmore. The four-time Super Bowl champion is third in regular-season touchdowns (92) and sixth in receiving yards (9,286) despite playing significantly fewer games (143) than the other names mentioned.
