Rob Gronkowski resurrects Deflategate, alleges Peyton Manning-less Colts were just bitter and tired of losing

The New England Patriots with Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Julien Edelman were a juggernaut in the early 2000's and that continued until Brady left the Patriots in 2020.

Despite winning six Super Bowls during that time, there was one saga that engulfed New England and the NFL - Deflategate. This was where the Indianapolis Colts accused Brady and the Patriots of deflating the footballs in the 2014 AFC Championship game as to make the footballs easier to throw.

The Patriots won that game 45-7 and advanced to the Super Bowl where they beat the Seattle Seahawks.

For Rob Gronkowski, there was a game earlier in the season where he felt that the Colts eventually had enough of losing to New England and hence, Deflategate happened.

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Rob Gronkowski talks reason for Deflategate

At the time, the Deflategate was a big saga and Gronkowski, like Edelman, was smack bang in the middle of it.

But now, the former tight end has detailed that perhaps it was a build-up of emotion from the Colts as they were tired of losing to the Patriots every year.

Gronkowski said on Julian Edelman's Names With Games podcast:

"We picked the 2014 season Week 11 Patriots vs Colts. This is when Jonas Gray had that breakout game over 200 yards, four TDs and it was the game I threw the guy out of the club."

“I absolutely hate the Colts bro. No respect for them. Every time we went in there, always amping s**t up, acting like they were the absolute best team out there. They had Peyton Manning, we had Tom Brady so we’re all for Brady, not Manning. They just always talked garbage in the media too the week of the game."

He continued:

"This game, I swear, led to Deflategate. They needed to find some BS answer of why they kept losing to us every single year. They weren’t just losing to us, we were absolutely pounding that ass every single time out there. That was so stupid bro, they just came up with that because we were whooping them every game.”

So what Gronk has to say is rather interesting, and whether or not its true, it certainly makes you think about the saga that enveloped the league at the time.

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Rob Gronkowski a surefire Hall of Famer

Super Bowl LV

For some, Rob Gronkowski is one of the best tight ends to ever play football, and looking at his resume, it's easy to see why.

Gronk is a 4x Super Bowl champion, a 4x All-Pro and a member of the Hall of Fame 2010 Team. He is 6th all-time for receiving yards (9,286), 10th in receptions (621), third in touchdowns (92) and second for yards per game (64.9).

Notably, all the other tight ends who are near the top of the list in stats, have played over 190 games, whereas Gronk only played 143 as injuries hampered him.

So one can imagine what his stats would look like had he been able to play and also, he missed a year in 2019 as he retired.

So, while Rob Gronkowski isn't at the top of all the stats, he is close enough and when the time comes for him to be enshrined in Canton, many think he is a first-ballot Hall of Famer - and it's hard to argue with that.