The expanse of Rob Gronkowski's reach and influence apparently knows no bounds.
Gronk has mixed it up and partied with basically every celebrity imaginable and common Americans alike. He's caught touchdowns from Tom Brady and won multiple Super Bowls. Might very well be the greatest all-around tight end in NFL history given his ability to catch passes and block like a lineman.
You never quite know what you're going to get when Gronk pops up on TV or in the headlines again, but at this point, he's outdoing himself. You might've seen that a couple New York Yankees fans were called for interference in Tuesday's Game 4 or the World Series when they fought over a ball that Dodgers star Mookie Betts was trying to catch in foul territory.
https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1851420322295128310?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
A lot of people are saying this was a turning point in the series for the Yanks. Down 3-0 and on the precipice of being swept in their home ballpark, it was looking bleak. All it took was a little intervention from beyond the field and the Bronx Bombers' bats suddenly woke up to produce a convincing 11-4 rout.
Maybe the fan interference did reinvigorate the Yankees clubhouse. Or maybe there was some Gronk-adjacent magic to it all along. Because yup, it turns out that Gronk was actually college pals with one of the guys wresting the foul ball away from Betts.
"He was on the ice hockey team, the club Arizona Wildcats team, ice hockey team. And let me tell you, the whole hockey team, they were absolute maniacs...animals. Him doing that represents him so well. He is all-in for his teams, he is all-in for the Yankees. I remember him talking about the Yankees all the time, how he loves them so much. And that describes him perfectly, just doing whatever it takes to help his team out. He's a beauty. He is a beauty...I just wanna say congratulations for shining when your moment came!"
https://twitter.com/UpAndAdamsShow/status/1851657572128059855
Kay Adams brings up a great point. If the wild, fun-loving Gronk is calling you a "maniac" or an "animal", you just might have more than a couple screws loose up in that noggin.
What on Earth did Gronk and the Arizona ice hockey club team get up to in Tucson back in the day? Can only imagine the scenes of a Prime College Gronk gallivanting around campus, pulling off shenanigans, and drinking copious amounts of adult beverages with these built-different hockey guys.
Gronk did clarify that he finds the behavior "unacceptable", but it's one of those where you have to respect the unwavering dedication and commitment to one's sports fandom. It takes a certain blend of liquid courage, lacking personal shame, and audacity to get yourself squarely in the mix of a World Series Game 4 and legit have a call on the field influenced by your actions.
Some people are upset that the media is glorifying this guy's actions.
https://twitter.com/SavageSports_/status/1851578435946123715
I think I align with Gronk on this. An occasional flare-up of fan interference is OK in my book. I mean come on, this World Series was about to be a snooze-fest sweep until these unruly fans gave the Yankees a glimmer of hope. Or so the narrative is being spun. Baseball needs weird moments like these to spice things up, although it'd be obnoxious if fans started trying to pull stunts like this in every game. There's no easy solution to making MLB more exciting. They would've figured it out already and deployed it if there was.
But all that said, I'm just blown away by Gronk knowing this fan on a personal level, having connected in college from clear across the country. Those are like Han Solo navigating the asteroid field odds. And now we have to wonder if Gronk is becoming the new Kevin Bacon as far as the whole degrees of separation phenomenon.
