A BEAUTIFUL MIND

DISMISS ROB GRONKOWSKI AS A DUMB JOCK AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE FOUR-TIME SUPER BOWL CHAMPION HAS TURNED HIS LARGER-THAN-LIFE PERSONALITY INTO A WINNING BRAND THAT EARNS HIM AN ESTIMATED $10 MILLION A YEAR-AND HE'S ONLY GETTING BIGGER.

- JUSTIN BIRNBAUM

MORE THAN 4 MILLION viewers tuning into Fox NFL Sunday last September saw Rob Gronkowski's usual carefree smirk give way to a flash of terror as Terry Bradshaw, Michael Strahan and the rest of the crew started discussing standout Dallas Cowboys tight end Rich Russo-a name that hadn't come up during the show's pregame preparation.

For good reason. This wasn’t a memory lapse for Gronkowski, a four-time Super Bowl-winning tight end with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Russo didn’t exist. He was part of an elaborate prank meant to haze the newest member of Fox's on-air team, who frantically tried to dig his way out of a conversation he knew nothing about on what he thought was live TV.

It’s easy to see Gronkowski as the perfect mark. While he compiled a Hall of Fame-worthy career across his 11 NFL seasons—with 92 career touchdown catches and nearly 9,300 receiving yards before he retired in 2022—he spent much of that time typecast as the quintessential meathead. On Netflix’s The Roast of Tom Brady last year, comedian Nikki Glaser joked of Gronk, sitting on the dais: “You're not really as dumb as you look and sound and act and are. You might be dumber”—mercilessly adding that he might be “the first person born with CTE.”

But that's hardly the full picture. “They think he's just a big caveman, but he really critically thinks over everything,” says Julian Edelman, Gronkowski's former Patriots teammate, with whom he cofounded the podcast production company Nuthouse Sports and cohosts the podcast Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules. “He is very tight. He's very detail-oriented. He's not afraid to ask questions.”