Rob Gronkowski is someone you’d imagine slacking off on the job. He also seems like the type who can find a way out of tight situations. Well, that couldn’t have been better illustrated than in a recent story he shared about how he tricked the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during COVID into thinking he was working out.
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When Gronkowski’s former teammate Tom Brady said the tight end only plays dumb for the cameras, he wasn’t lying. In reality, Gronk is a smart guy behind the scenes — studious and savvy with his money.
During the pandemic, when athletes had to work out at home, Gronkowski pulled quite a trick. The Buccaneers required players to film their workouts and submit them as proof they were staying in shape. But that was too much effort for the tight end.
So what did he do? Gronk wore different t-shirts for each set of runs and recorded them all in one session. That made it look like he was working daily, when he really wasn’t.
“During COVID, you were doing all of the workouts at home, and you had to send them into an app to prove that you were doing the workouts. So, you actually had to film yourself like benching, and film yourself, you know, running the routes. Or running the sprints,” Gronkowski shared on an episode of Bussin with the Boys.
“But you didn’t have to do the whole entire bench set. Like it was your last set, or show two of the runs that you were doing. So, that day, you have 12 runs. You’ve got to show two of them. So, instead of filming myself every single time to submit the runs, I brought out six different t-shirts, and every two runs I’d switch my t-shirt up and then film the whole entire run that day,” he continued.
Honestly, the amount of thought Gronkowski put into the scheme was impressive. The Buccaneers probably would’ve never guessed that their perceived “dumb” tight end was pulling a fast one on them. So, he took advantage of the leeway.
Gronkowski even admitted that what he did wasn’t up to code.
“I would submit those two runs with a different t-shirt on every single time… So, I tricked them,” he said.
Work smarter not harder pic.twitter.com/ZLmSpXHlYF
— Bussin’ With The Boys (@BussinWTB) May 23, 2025
The antics didn’t seem to affect Gronkowski’s play, though, as he went on to appear in all 19 games that season for the Bucs. In hindsight, he was probably just bored with the monotony of working from home (like we all were) and wanted to have some fun with the coaching staff.
We all pulled some pretty creative tactics to get out of work during the pandemic. Some faked being infected, others blamed their WiFi. But clearly, Gronkowski’s approach was a bit more well-thought-out.
