FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — While the Patriots were fighting their way through the playoffs last season, Rob Gronkowski was fighting his way through his rehabilitation. While the team was orchestrating the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, the tight end was a spectator.
The last time Gronkowski was on the field in the playoffs, the Patriots’ season ended in the AFC Championship Game in Denver in January 2016. When he takes the field against the Tennessee Titans on Saturday, it will have been 720 days since Gronkowski last played in a playoff game.
Gronkowski is certainly pumped up to be with his teammates.
“I’m excited. Definitely,” he said. “I wasn’t part of it last year. ... Just looking forward to this game. Super excited to be back out there with the team. Just super excited today on the field with the boys again. We had a couple of days off. It’s my first playoff game in a while. I’m excited.”
Gronkowski had back surgery late last season to repair a herniated disk after being placed on injured reserve. It was the third back surgery of his career (all have been done by Dr. Robert Watkins) and left the tight end with a lengthy recovery while his teammates went on another Super Bowl run.
In typical Gronk fashion, he wanted to get back on the field as fast as he could. Due to the procedure, however, he had to be cautious. He succeeded in his physical therapy and was present for offseason workouts in April.
“I never came off of surgery and said, ‘Oh, wow, I feel comfortable,’ ” Gronkowski said. “I can’t really give you a timeline, it took this many weeks or whatever. Throughout them all, I would say you can’t go full, full speed even though your mindset, you want to be 100 percent ready to roll. Just got to keep sticking to the process, keep on sticking to the rehab, keep on going hard and everything will kick in.”