It was the wrong kind of football anyway. Rob Gronkowski had spent 11 years playing a sport where people were allowed to hit him. He returned to the field at 37 years old for a supposedly lighter version of the sport: flag football, and had all the familiar faces around him again. Tom Brady was there. So was the old rhythm.
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And for a few minutes, it looked easy. Brady, back on a football field after more than 1,000 days, found Gronk for a two-point conversion after the former Patriots tight end had already made three catches on the opening drive. Four years into retirement, Gronk looked like he had never really left. But…
“Then my hammy popped on me, and then those thoughts just went away,” Rob Gronkowski said to Sports Illustrated’s Claudette Montana.
The injury happened after catching the two-point pass. He fell to the ground. When Gronkowski tried to stand up, his foot slipped on a piece of turf next to the field, and he pulled his hamstring.
He tested it to see if he could continue but decided against it. Pushing still could have worsened matters for him further.
That ended his first competitive football appearance since the 2021 NFL season after one drive. Without Gronkowski, Team Founders struggled, and Team USA won 43-16. Founders had led 8-0 after Brady’s touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs and the Gronkowski conversion.
The injury also landed differently because this wasn’t Gronkowski’s first time wondering whether football still had another chapter for him. He retired after the 2018 season, then returned in 2020 when Brady left New England for Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers went on to win Super Bowl LV, with Gronkowski catching two touchdowns in the game.
He retired again in 2022. There were still occasional possibilities after that. He contacted the Buccaneers about a return in November 2022, but ultimately stayed retired. In 2025, Joe Burrow even reached out about joining the Bengals; Gronkowski initially thought the message was a prank.
None of those became an NFL comeback. The 2026 flag-football game was different: Gronkowski actually stepped onto a football field again.
Not taking the risk makes sense given his injury history. In 2016, a hamstring injury during training camp kept him out of the Patriots’ first two games. He returned in Week 3 but later missed time with a back injury and a perforated lung.
His 2013 season was even harder. Gronkowski played only seven games before suffering torn ACL and MCL ligaments, ending his season. He had already dealt with back and forearm issues that year and also suffered a concussion with the knee injury.
Despite it all, Gronkowski played 143 NFL games and finished with 621 catches, 9,286 receiving yards and 92 touchdowns. He produced 592 yards in only seven games in 2013 and 540 in eight games in 2016, numbers that show how much he could still produce when healthy.
But, the irony was that it took so little. After an NFL career that included back problems, broken forearms, concussions, knee injuries and a torn ACL and MCL, it wasn’t another hit that appeared to settle the football question. It was a hamstring injury after a two-point conversion in a flag-football exhibition.
He now works as an NFL analyst for FOX. He also remains involved in football without playing it, including his podcast with Julian Edelman, while building a post-NFL career around broadcasting, endorsements and business.
And he hasn’t completely closed the door on flag football. The Fanatics Flag Football Classic is expected to return in 2027, and Gronkowski has indicated that he could play again. But after one drive in Los Angeles changed his thinking about playing football again, the question is no longer whether he misses it. It’s whether his body will let him.