National Football League

World's Most Interesting Team

Updated Jul. 17, 2020 9:16 p.m. ET

Rob Gronkowski has built a career — and a brand — out of making things around him seem both incredibly strange and completely normal at the same time.

Oddities and eccentricities follow Gronkowski at every turn, with his unretirement and subsequent reunification with Tom Brady on Tuesday being the latest, wondrous example.

Gronkowski’s life is a non-stop, over-the-top adventure revolving around the unusual, unthinkable and lovably bizarre, a series of larger than life happenings and happenstances that can be best described with a single phrase that has no shortage of usages.

“Because ... Gronk.“

Brady, after years as the dutiful Foxboro servant, has now shown his first sign of flexing his superstar muscles in Central Florida and said: “I want my buddy.” Because … Gronk.

The New England Patriots did something that they virtually never do, making a trade that is almost certainly more beneficial to the other team. Because … Gronk.

The NFL Draft just got momentarily overshadowed by a transaction that involved a fourth rounder and a seventh rounder. Because … Gronk.

WWE announced that its reigning 24/7 champ would have to defend his title, even during Tampa Bay Buccaneers games. What? Because … Gronk.

And those Buccaneers just became the most interesting team ahead of whatever the next NFL season looks like. Because … Gronk.

“This is awesome,” FOX Sports’ Nick Wright said on First Things First. “This is so exciting. This is so much fun. The league is better with Rob Gronkowski in it. By the way, we don’t even know how unleashed Gronk is going to be. We saw him making inappropriate jokes and throwing parties and doing motocross when he was in the cocoon of (Bill) Belichick. We are going to see warm weather Tom, Gronk being Gronk, I am super excited for it.”

Adding Gronkowski is a reminder that Brady’s own switch southwards isn’t intended as being the QB’s lazy, sun-kissed retirement tour. He, as a 42-year-old must necessarily be, is in win-now mode, which suits the Bucs just fine.

Brady is on a mission to show that he was more than just the facilitator of Belichick’s genius in New England, and Gronkowski is more than happy to play his part in that. The chance to reunite with his pal Brady, without Belichick in his ear and in a city he likes well enough to have owned a home there, and where he owns a stake in a restaurant? Too good to refuse.

Brady wanted Gronk because of his size and smarts and the inescapable notion that this big old goofball is one of the finest tight ends to ever play the game, a surefire Hall of Famer with three rings to his name.

No doubt about it, Brady wants this reincarnation to have a different feel to it. No more grim, ruthless, inexorable grind towards success. He wants to show it can be done a different way, where you say what you think and have fun while still winning.

Can he pull it off? We will see. Gronkowski has had a lot of fun during his time out, the most public example of which was when he hosted WrestleMania, leaped from a gantry and collected a title. The prospect of a defensive opponent trying to pin him after tackling him during an actual game is delicious, if he can retain the 24/7 belt that long.

As for the trade, the Patriots were essentially over a barrel. Having retired a year ago, the final year of his contract is worth $10 million, something that the Pats, with all their dead cap space, simply had no room for.

Furthermore, the fact is that Gronkowski would likely only have come back to football for this one specific fit. He didn’t want to be back in New England; he wanted Florida and his old friend Tom. The Patriots had no leverage to speak of, which is why getting a fourth rounder in exchange for a seventh was the very best they could hope for.

Turning the Buccaneers into the most talked about team in the league was taken care of by Brady’s arrival and reinforced by Gronkowski’s move. Turning them into one of the best is a different proposition entirely, and preseason hype often fails to equal actual productivity. Remember that popular playoff sleeper pick from 12 months ago? They were called the 2019 Cleveland Browns, and you know what happened next.

However, the Bucs are likely not the Browns. Getting Gronk does mean that Brady has a stacked set of receiving options to pick from and raises the possibility that Cameron Brate, now probably surplus to requirements, could be flipped in a trade to provide additional support in other areas. The defense was robust last year, and this offseason has brought an influx of Super Bowl-winning experience.

Once things get going, Tampa Bay could end up being great or they could underachieve. There isn’t much point predicting what could happen next because, with this latest maneuver that has shifted the focus of the NFL news cycle decisively in the direction of its all-time worst franchise, the answer to that puzzle is “anything.”

But there is no question the Bucs will be entertaining as hell and never short on a storyline, even more so now than after Brady’s arrival. Because ... Gronk.