Rob Gronkowski shares bizarre response to Antonio Brown's shocking meltdown

Rob Gronkowski, along with the rest of the NFL, served as bystanders as Antonio Brown's now-famous meltdown took place just yards away. However, the tight end had little idea what was going on, based on a response given to a question on the event. According to Megan Gailey, Gronkowski's response was a little less straightforward than that.

Making sense of Rob Gronkowski's response to Antonio Brown meltdown

Tampa Bay Buccaneers v Los Angeles Rams

Most NFL players likely would have responded by saying something like "I was in the game" or "I wasn't aware of what was going on." Instead, Gronkowski said that he didn't know because he was smashing his head into linemen.

"I dunno I was out there smashing my head against 300 pound linemen"

Gronkowski's response was a graphic way of saying that he was in the game and wasn't paying attention to the sideline. Why did he feel the need to phrase it that way? There are a few theories.

Why did Rob Gronkowski need to describe the lineman he was blocking?

After reading the response about Antonio Brown, some are wondering where his phrasing came from. The tone of the quote sounds like one of frustration. It was his way of saying that the question was unnecessary and the need for a response was tedious. Therefore, he felt the need to dress up the words with a description of what he was doing on the field.

Another explanation could be that Gronkowski, ever the jokester, felt the need to make his answer interesting and, somewhat, funny. This fits his personality, but it feels like the wrong place to make a joke. However, one theory seems to fit the best.

As an NFL player pushing 33 years old, Gronkowski is getting up there in terms of age as a tight end. At this point, it is almost a guarantee that CTE will afflict a player later in life. As Gronkowski gets older and closer to finding out the damage a decade-plus of "smashing" one's head into another will be, he could be feeling guilty about what he's doing to himself every week.

As such, when asked about something unrelated like Brown's meltdown, Gronkowski's mind combined what he was thinking about with CTE and his age with Antonio Brown. The result was the quote above. If this is something Gronkowski is thinking this much about, could his second retirement be around the corner?