While Ohio State did not sign four-time NFL All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski, the Buckeyes got a viral moment out of his recruiting visit.
On the “Green Light” podcast, Gronkowski was asked by former Buccaneers teammate Cameron Brate about a picture taken of the tight end on his visit to the Buckeyes during the Ohio State-Michigan game, where the young tight end had a stern and confused look on his face.
Gronkowski had finished his senior year of high school football at Woodland Hills High School in a Pittsburgh suburb and was “freelancing,” in his own words, not worried about getting back to school in time after visits.
After making the two-hour drive to Columbus, Gronkowski went out the night before the game with two friends who were enrolled at Ohio State. The group went to Ohio State frat houses around 2 or 3 a.m. to party, he said.
“I’ll just say I was drinking water because I was only 18 years old at the time,” Gronkowski said on the podcast. “So, it was just water, but I was feeling good off the water.”
In the street, Gronk said, he and his friends got into two fights, and he threw a couple of “haymakers.”
“We had a little brawl, which was fun,” Gronk said, “That’s the whole point of these visits as well.”
After waking up feeling like a “disaster,” Gronkowski went to the game when a photographer snapped a photo of Gronkowski, who looked sleep-deprived and disheveled.
Gronkowski said that he was “shocked” by how nice Ohio State was for the football atmosphere and facilities, but that his “heart” was at Arizona.
While Gronk’s face shows a lack of enthusiasm in the photo, the game itself was an instant classic. Ranked No. 1, the Buckeyes defeated No. 2 Michigan 42-39.
Gronkowski recreated the photo with former Ohio State staffer Jeff Svoboda on “Big Noon Kickoff” ahead of the Ohio State-Penn State game Nov. 1.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Rob Gronkowski details events from viral Ohio State recruiting photo
Reporting by Dan Aulbach, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
