Report: Rob Gronkowski nearly traded to Lions during draft, Gronk threatened to retire when he heard
Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:40 am
Imagine seeing Rob Gronkowski in Sunday night's Patriots-Lions game, but instead of him wearing the Pats' colors, he's wearing Lions' traditional silver. That would be a surreal scene, and it's one that nearly happened.
According to a report from Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Lions and Patriots had a deal in place to send the All-World tight end from the only place he's played to a would-be NFC contender.
Gronk wasn't having it though: when he found out about the deal, he threatened to retire and "even declined to return the Lions' calls" per Schefter. That despite the fact that coach Matt Patricia and GM Bob Quinn are running the show in Detroit: both were long-time stalwarts of the Patriots organization.
This all went down during the weekend of the draft -- per Schefter the two clubs "were deep into trade discussions last offseason that peaked during the week of the draft, when the teams nearly completed a blockbuster trade."
All of the trade discussions stemmed out of the contractual concerns Gronkowski had with the Patriots. The tight end believed he should get a new deal from New England, but the Patriots did not sound inclined to pony up a bunch of additional guaranteed money for a guy with his injury history.
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