nbc news Notoriously tight-lipped about injuries under coach Bill Belichick's tenure, the New England Patriots released a statement Tuesday night about the status of tight end Rob Gronkowski and the knee he
injured in the second half of Sunday night's loss to the Denver Broncos.
The statement, sent on behalf of the team "and the Gronkowski family," read:
“During Sunday night’s game, Rob Gronkowski sustained a bone bruise/sprain of his right knee. His status will be evaluated on a week-to-week basis and listed accordingly on the practice participation and injury reports. There is no timetable for his readiness to return, which will be determined in the days or hours prior to the appropriate game. Any timetable reported prior to that final determination would be speculative.”
A short time later, a video showed up on "Uninterrupted" with Gronkowski explaining a bit more:
Gronkowski says he's thankful that the injury is "nothing serious," but "I'm week-to-week, I'll be working hard to get back on the field as soon as possible, and when I'm 100 percent, feeling good, cleared by all the doctors, the team, that's when I'll be back. There's no timetable for that. I'll just be working hard and trying to get 100 percent as soon as possible. I promise you that."
He ends with "Go Arizona! Bear down," a shout-out to his college.
In his Wednesday morning news conference, Belichick was at his snarky best when asked why the team went away from its usual course of action:
MUST SEE: Bill Belichick responds to question about yesterday's joint statement on Gronk's health
#Patriots #WBZ
pic.twitter.com/lhzHxXMhrj
— Joe Giza (@JoeGiza) December 2, 2015
The happenings are interesting, and it's easy to wonder why the Patriots and a player on their roster went off script in this situation. Could it have been to calm fans' nerves about the health of arguably the most important player not named
Tom Brady? Possible.
The focus here went to the line in the statement that it was on behalf of the Patriots and the Gronkowski family. There were rumblings that there was discord between Gronkowski's camp and the Patriots on how to handle previous injuries he has had, and there likely isn't anyone that has Gronkwski's ear more than his father, Gordy Sr. Gordy Sr., as well as several of Rob's brothers, are frequently at events with him, whether they be of the party nature or football in nature, like the camp Rob held in Massachusetts earlier this year.
Gronkowski is a unique player, and plays a key role in the Patriots' success. The guess here is Gordy Sr. knows this, and won't leave his son in a position where he's being bashed by fans or media for missing time because the Patriots refuse to talk the specifics of his injury. This way, it's relatively clear - it could be one week he's out, it could be longer, and the nature of his injury makes it a bit unpredictable when he'll return.
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