Growing Up Gronk: A Familys Story of Raising Champions
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“I wouldn’t say I was stubborn about it,” Dan contested. “That’s not the right term. I’d call it relentless.”
An early scholarship offer came from the University at Buffalo, just a few miles from his family home. But having watched Gordie experience success in Jacksonville, Dan wanted to travel out of state as well. Queries flooded his mailbox, but none contained an offer to play quarterback. Everyone envisioned him as a tight end or lineman. The University of Maryland, however, suggested an intriguing proposition.
“Maryland said they would bring him in as a quarterback and let his play tell them if he was a quarterback or not,” his father summarized.
“They looked at me and had it in the back of their minds that I could play tight end,” Dan admitted. “But they gave me a chance at quarterback. I was doing pretty well through spring ball, but finally decided I wanted to get on the field faster. They didn’t push me into tight end, but left it up to me.”
Making the position switch took some getting used to. But Dan was not afraid of hard work or learning new things.
“He never gave up,” his father observed. “Dan had never had his hand down on the ground before. It was a whole new experience for him. He had never blocked or done any of that stuff. But he’s more grounded than the other guys. He’s a warrior in the weight room. He’s always on time and always last to leave. He’s doing anything he can to stay one step ahead of the next guy, you know? He doesn’t have all the skills that Robbie does. For Robbie it comes natural, but Danny has to work at it constantly.”
Seeing his older brother succeed was strong motivation for Rob, who is four years younger.
“He was the first one in our family to get a full scholarship, and that was huge,” Rob explained. “He laid the baseline. I watched him play and saw what he did to get stronger. His work ethic motivated me.”
After a redshirt year, Dan played in five games for the Maryland Terrapins in 2005, catching two passes for thirty-seven yards, including a twenty-five-yard touchdown. The following season, he played thirteen games, including nine starts, but was primarily a blocking tight end. He garnered an award that year for earning highest grade point average among his teammates. In 2007, Dan played eleven games, catching seven passes for sixty-six yards. He also received an award for public service.
During his senior year, 2008, Dan started twelve games and developed into more of a pass catcher. He snagged twenty-seven receptions for 287 yards, including three touchdowns. At season’s end he was named an honorable mention All–Atlantic Coast Conference player.
Dan and his wife, the former Brittany Blujus, have dated since their senior year of high school. After spending semesters at Canisius and Buffalo State colleges, she transferred to Maryland so they could be closer together.
“He had this big binder of football plays, and he was always studying,” she recalled. “It’s a forty-five-minute flight from Baltimore to Buffalo, and when we flew home, he buried his head in that binder. He made index cards in a plastic filing system, and I used to quiz him. I had no idea what it meant, but I’d ask him to name a play, and flip the card over to see if he was right.”
During his time at Maryland, his younger brother Chris joined the football team as a fullback but left after two seasons to play in Arizona.
“Chris went to Maryland with me,” Dan said. “We always hung out and he was playing well. But they were playing another fullback, so Chris saw an opportunity somewhere else and took advantage of it.”
Dan earned a marketing degree and continued to pursue an MBA after he graduated. He began the process to be nominated as a Rhodes Scholar but decided instead to concentrate on a football career.
“Probably my sophomore or junior year in college is when I started thinking about playing professionally,” he said. “I began comparing myself to other guys and thought I could do it.”
He entered the NFL draft in 2009. Predraft experts ranked him in impressive company: Draft Countdown assessed Dan as the twenty-first-best tight end prospect. The NFL Draft Scout ranked him eleventh out of ninety-six potential tight ends, projecting him as a fifth- or sixth-round selection. After intense training, he performed well at the NFL Scouting Combine, opening the eyes of many scouts.
Until that point, he was reluctant to admit that becoming a pro football player was his dream.
“People always asked what I wanted to be when I was older,” he recalled. “You can’t say you’re going to be an athlete, because every kid in class wants to be a professional sports player, and I knew the chances are slim you’re going to make it as a professional. So I’d try to think of something else to say. But throughout the years I knew in the back of my mind that’s what I wanted to be. That was the dream I stuck with. I was a great athlete and I loved being a team player. I always tried to help other players get better along with me.”
On April 26, 2009, day two of the annual NFL draft, the Gronkowskis hosted a huge party at their family home, expecting Dan’s name to be called sometime that afternoon. The spacious family room was filled to the brim, with snacks and drinks and the big-screen TV flashing images of teams’ selections. A local news station sent a camera crew to capture the excitement.
Dressed in a black polo shirt and black baseball cap turned backwards, his long hair flowing toward his shoulders, Dan waited to hear his fate. As the fifth and sixth rounds came and went, tensions grew. Dan alternately paced the room, walked alone in the backyard, and tossed basketballs at a net on the tennis court adjacent to the driveway, while frequently checking his cell phone.
Finally, nearing 7:00 P.M., with only two picks remaining in the seventh and final round, Dan received a call from the Detroit Lions. He had been selected with the 255th overall pick. Moments after he hung up, the Gronkowski family room exploded in excitement when Dan’s name flashed on the TV screen. His brothers leaped up and chest-bumped him; Rob sprung up and down as if bouncing on an invisible pogo stick. Dan’s father and mother calmly offered quotes to the news reporter.
“It took a while,” Dan said that day. “But this is a dream come true. It doesn’t matter where you get drafted. I’m ready to go to Detroit and get to work.”
His rookie year in Detroit was a learning experience. The previous season, the Lions had become the NFL’s first-ever 0-16 team, so there was plenty of room for improvement. But the roster was filled with young talent, including superstar receiver Calvin Johnson and quarterback Matthew Stafford. Dan spent much of the season jumping between the fifty-three-man squad and the practice roster. Promoted to the team when another tight end was injured, Dan caught one pass for four yards against the Baltimore Ravens. Later that week, he was cut and re-signed to the practice squad. Dan signed five different contracts that year—a separate form was required for each move up or down.
“Starting off in Detroit, I improved my route running a lot,” Dan said. “I just worked at getting better. When I was there, they made so many moves. We had a new general manager and new coach. Every day they had someone new in and someone else gone. It was crazy. They brought in hardworking guys, winning guys, and tried to build up their defensive line.”
Entering his second season, Dan faced stiff competition to earn a spot with the Lions again. Three tight ends were stacked above him on the depth chart.
“The worst scenario was that he would have gone back on the practice squad,” Gordy said, recalling cutdown day in September 2010. “We were fairly sure if that happened he would be claimed by some other team, possibly the Jets or Bills. We were looking at who needed tight ends. When he got the call that said he’d been traded to Denver, it threw us all for a loop.”
With the 4:00 P.M. cutdown looming, Dan was traded to the Denver Broncos for cornerback Alphonso Smith. It was a sudden and unexpected shift of fortune.
“Going to Denver was crazy,” Dan recalled. “I arrived there and had to learn the whole offense in one week. It was totally different than the offense I had been in. I was at the facility from se
ven in the morning until nine at night. I really only had time to go home and sleep. Plus it’s always hard to move to another place, because you have to figure out all the little things around you.”
The crash course in offense was another challenge. Dan needed to know where tight ends lined up, what play was called, distances of each route, where to block on certain plays, who was helping block, and what calls might be made on the offensive line.
“It’s a lot to process,” Dan admitted. “Besides quarterback, tight end is the hardest position for knowing stuff. You have to be responsible for running, blocking, receiving, and fullback duties.”
On opening weekend, the hard work paid dividends: Dan played twenty-five snaps in an offense he had not known eight days earlier. But adjusting to change was easier because of his work ethic.
“I always had an itch believing that I had to do more,” Dan reflected. “Growing up, I’d try to get people to work out with me, but nobody ever wanted to do it. Am I just crazy? I know I need to do this to get in shape. I have this thing, I don’t know where it’s from, but the mental aspect pushes me past people. I always believed that I have to do this or that to get prepared and get my body ready.”
As the season progressed, he played in twelve games, catching eight passes for sixty-five yards. Denver faced a three-headed quarterback controversy with Kyle Orton, Tim Tebow, and Brady Quinn. Head coach Josh McDaniels was fired in early December. With so much uncertainty surrounding the Broncos’ future, Dan worried about his odds of remaining with the club for long.
When the 2010 season ended, Dan continued to work out but took a respite from the whirlwind of the Mile High City. The following July, he and Brittany married. Dan tweeted that the ceremony would be more extravagant than William and Kate’s royal nuptials earlier that spring, joking that only two billion people watched the British wedding.
By August, it was back to Colorado for training camp. With a year of experience in the Broncos’ organization, Dan hoped to settle into a routine but knew he was in another dogfight for a job.
“During the off-season, we got a new coach, Coach [John] Fox, who brought in his guys and drafted new guys,” Dan said. “I got cut on the last day, and New England called my agent on Tuesday. I went out there, had a tryout, and signed with them.”
Moving from a team in transition to a perennial powerhouse offered a huge upside. The added bonus was that Dan was now playing alongside his brother Rob, an emerging superstar who had made a name for himself in 2010.
Rob garnered a reputation for being a goofball, silly in and out of the locker room. Four years older, Dan is more serious and intense. Immediately their teammates noticed the difference.
“I thought it was going to be very interesting, like I was going to have two idiots right next to me on both sides,” Patriots receiver Wes Welker joked to the media while sitting at his dressing stall. “But [Dan] is actually pretty bright. I was surprised.”
After playing twenty-five snaps on opening night and starting in a three-tight-end formation in week two, Dan was cut before the third game with an injured hamstring. Being dismissed prevented him from a potential homecoming against the Buffalo Bills, a game in which Rob caught seven passes for 109 yards with two touchdowns.
Three weeks later, once his hamstring had recovered enough that he could play, Dan rejoined the team. But as the season progressed, injuries in other positions began to mount, and Dan was cut again after week nine to make room for new players who were signed to fill those voids.
“The first time I was hurt, so I needed to get healthy, then come back,” he said. “The next time, the team had a lot of injuries, so that left me wondering how long it might take to get back. For a time, I thought I’d be back before the end of the year, because they kept my locker stall intact. If another team called, I’m sure my agent, Drew Rosenhaus, would call New England and they could figure something out.”
Because of this uncertainty, fall 2011 was a difficult time for Dan. He existed week to week in blocks of limbo, unsure if the Patriots would be calling for his services again or if he should consider moving to another team. Doing that might lend greater job security, but he would surrender a legitimate chance to win a Super Bowl with his brother.
“So many changes definitely take an emotional toll on you, but you just have to keep fighting and take advantage of your chances. Hopefully you get another chance and get out there and fight.”
When weeks stretched and New England did not re-sign Dan, he continued to look elsewhere for work. Several teams inquired about signing him—but not until after week seventeen. They wanted Dan to experience an entire off-season to learn their system. On December 23, Dan signed a two-year deal with the Cleveland Browns, hoping to land in a spot where he could stay for some time. He dressed for the final two games of the season but played sparingly as he learned another new offense.
Because of his gypsy ways, Dan viewed pro football with a wary eye, despite being only twenty-six years old. Superstars like his brother Rob have an entirely different experience with the business end of the game, where money and opportunity are unrolled like a red carpet.
“There is a whole other side of football that a lot of people don’t see,” Dan mused, shaking his head and lowering his already-deep voice. “It’s crazy. You’ve got to get on a team and perform, and hopefully they like you and you can stick for a while. There are so many guys that just go in for rookie camps and so many cuts being made. You really don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.”
Bouncing from team to team is challenging enough, but the moves also impact his wife. After graduating with a degree in elementary education in 2008, Brittany began teaching full-time in Maryland. They planned to maintain a long-distance relationship, but once Dan left for Detroit, his absence felt tangible. She claimed she wasn’t fully “checked in” at her job. After waiting patiently through the day for his evening call, Brittany realized she would rather move to be with him. The various moves, after all, would be temporary.
“It would be different if we were older and had four kids,” she said. “This is an opportunity that we’re going to enjoy now. It’s so exciting and thrilling. I can’t explain to you how proud I feel when he runs onto the field to the cheers of the crowd. Any type of stress I’m feeling just goes away.”
Still, moving to a new city is hard.
“My only connection to these different places is Dan’s job,” she said. “I’ve become a professional packer. I know exactly where the silicone wrap is at Lowe’s. When he signs with a new team, I get really excited but try to stay calm so he doesn’t have to worry.”
Playing for four organizations has allowed Dan to witness the inner workings of the league in a way many players do not see.
“You definitely notice a difference in mindset by playing on different teams. You see how things work with the coaches and what type of players they bring in. New England brings in guys that are very businesslike. They want their people to be hardworking, put in the time, and know their stuff. If someone gets hurt at one position, another guy will fill in, because he’s supposed to know it. You have to be able to do different stuff.”
Several examples from the 2011 season were evident: backup wide receiver Julian Edelman spent significant time playing defensive back when injuries struck there. Deion Branch moved inside to play slot receiver when needed. Thanks to his leaping ability, Rob even joined the defense for one play at the end of a game. He was inserted as a defensive back, instructed to swat down the ball on a Hail Mary toss.
Each team has similarities as well. Most of the athletes he encountered are driven and passionate, willing to log long hours and extra time to achieve success, displaying the sort of extra work that Dan had always done.
“When you get higher in the professional ranks, those are the guys that were doing the same things as me, putting in the extra time,” he said. “It’s like that in the pros. In New England, everyone was at the practice facility early.
That’s normal.”
As the 2011 season ended, Dan found a new home in Cleveland but not necessarily a new role. He had been a third-string tight end for the past three seasons, bouncing among teams. The Browns made no promises of a starting role. Dan was simply happy for another opportunity. He hoped to stick with the Browns and establish himself there.
He was cut from the roster before the 2012 season, but continued to train, hoping for a chance to land with another team.
“In college I was known for blocking,” Dan said. “But when I got to Detroit I learned how to receive. My tight end coach was more of a receiving coach so I got better at that. When I went to Denver they looked at me as more of a receiving tight end. Sometimes I feel I’m stuck in the middle. I feel like I’m good at doing both things, but I want to be great at one. I’m looking at myself trying to pick one of these out. During the off-season I’m going to try to get bigger and concentrate on blocking. I weigh about two fifty-five, but tight ends that block are two seventy-five. That’s what teams are looking for. Blocking was my strength in college. I’ve got to get back to that.”
True to form, Dan met the challenge he had set for himself and gained fifteen pounds in the off-season, tipping the scales at 270. Dan’s college coaches instilled in him the importance of drilling the guy in front of you. Dan hopes to return to that mentality as he forges ahead. Despite four moves in three years, he is not discouraged, nor is he ready to give up on football.
“I’m going to go as long as I can,” he vowed. “At this point in my career I want to get on a team and stick for a few years. Right now I want to get better. Bigger, stronger, faster. I improve every year. I might not be the best player on the team, but I’ve won so many most-improved-player awards. I’m going to keep working hard and improving until my body gets older and I can’t go anymore.”