If Brady is really on the decline I'd expect a tsunami of this type of stuff over the next year or two. Belichik runs a very tight ship in which only a handful of players have any security at all. When you're winning that works just fine. Start losing and things can go to hell in a handbasket in a hurry.
Why wouldn't Gronk want to play all year though? This might be slightly like the Derrick Rose situation where everyone around him deemed he was ready, but the player himself doesn't feel ready or comfortable yet. At the end of the day, the player knows how they feel the best.
The major offset to this is that the doctor isn't clearing him to play. Unless that's based on an assessment of the player's confidence in the arm. Weird.
I'm thinking Gronk wants independent clearance to play because he doesn't trust the Pats' doctors. Prolly feels they didn't act in his best interest with their handling of his arm injury.
The odds are pretty good that Gronk is over at this point. He doesn't just have the arm issue he also has the ankle he had issues with, he also has the back issue that kept people from drafting him in the 1st in 2010. He's going to play some more but the odds on him being able to hold up over any significant span of time are low.
This could be all speculation since there aren't details out, but this could be potentially what he is experiencing: http://regressing.deadspin.com/what-really-went-wrong-with-rob-gronkowskis-arm-surger-1441138496
I'm wondering if his being "dominant" during practice is because he is fully recovered OR if simply, the Pat's Defense isn't that good.
It has nothing to do with him at all, the doctors refuse to clear him...I don't get all the hubbub here...or there for that matter.
I think he fears its a degenerative situation in his arm. He broke it BLOCKING a player, then broke the same arm in a different place doing a forward roll after a catch. What I can't figure out is him playing all out at practice if he isn't medically cleared to play?
It would be huge for Gronk to be out against us. We always have trouble covering tight ends, let alone elite ones such as Gronk.
He has been medically cleared by the Pats doctors to play, or he wouldn't be practicing fully with no limitations. From the sounds of what his mother said, it's a matter of HIM feeling comfortable that when he comes back he won't just break the arm again.
