How Rob Gronkowski finally figured out life after football

Rob Gronkowski was completely unprepared for life after football. 

After the 2018 season, the future Hall of Fame tight end had won three Super Bowls with Tom Brady's New England Patriots and had been a four-time All-Pro with serious off-field bona fides. But concussions and bodily wear and tear forced Gronkowski into retirement less than two months before his 30th birthday. 

"I've been an athlete since I was 2 years old," Gronk told Yahoo Sports ahead of his eBay Live show "Gronk Geeks Out" this week at The National collectibles convention in Chicago. "When all you know is sports and that's all you've been doing your whole life, to all of a sudden not have that, not have practices in my schedule, to not have teammates, it was definitely a difficult transition." 

Gronkowski's gridiron departure was made easier by his magnetic, fun-loving personality, giving off a likable, relatable aura and energy that made him seem relatable and able to fit in with any crowd as one of the boys. He'd been a popular pitchman and product endorser as a player, writing a book in 2015, appearing on the "Madden" cover in 2017 and starring in Discovery's "Shark Week" in 2018. He was even the face of Procter & Gamble's Super Bowl PSA to get kids to stop eating Tide pods when that was a horrifying social media trend. With football out of the picture, Gronk had numerous opportunities in front of him and all the time in the world to accept those invitations.  

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The retiree appeared in an episode of "The $100,000 Pyramid" in 2019, starred in a bizarre, short-lived CBS game show called "Game On" in 2020 and made it halfway through the 2020 season of "The Masked Singer." 

"You get to do things to see if you like it," Gronkowski said, "but there have been times where I've been like, 'What am I doing here?' This is cool, I got nothing bad to say about it, but it just isn't for me. I was going from show to show, I was doing appearances all over the place, and it just became too much for me."

FOX via Getty Images

It turned out that what fit best for Gronkowski was football all along. In 2019, he joined Fox's NFL coverage as a studio analyst for Thursday night and Sunday afternoon games, drawn to the schedule, the routine and discussing the game he'd devoted his life to. It's why it wasn't a surprise when the possibility of a comeback became too difficult for Gronk to resist.

A month after Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, New England traded Gronkowski to Tampa, where he played two more seasons and won a fourth Super Bowl title. With Fox's analyst offer waiting, he retired for good following the 2021 campaign.

"Football season's always been my work season," he said, and it will likely remain that way for a long time. "I love the grind."

As he settled into permanent retirement, Gronk set out to be more selective in his media and built an investment strategy he began cultivating while playing for the Pats. He famously lived off of his endorsement deals, not spending a dime of the more than $70 million he made in on-field earnings. Two early wins in his 20s came through some luck and good fortune. 

The contractor building Gronkowski a house in 2014 advised him to invest in Apple. The $69,000 he put into Apple stock is now worth roughly $1.1 million. Gronkowski also became one of the first endorsers for BodyArmor in 2012, taking cash and equity as part of the deal that earned him a huge windfall when the company was sold to Coca-Cola for $5.6 billion in 2021.

"When I was 22 years old, I got some shares," Gronkowski said. "I was like, cool. I want cash. You don't understand how it grows or anything when you're that young. Well, now I understand how everything works, how it can get bigger and hit in the end if everything goes right."

Over the course of the BodyArmor deal, Gronkowski maintained a relationship with company co-founder and serial beverage entrepreneur Lance Collins. Collins brought Gronk in as an early investor in organic hydration brand Recover 180 and Casa Azul tequila, both of which launched in 2024. Gronkowski also has a diverse range of real estate holdings and a stake in Oxygen Esports, among other assets. Diversification, he believes, is the key to investment success.

"Make your portfolio as big as possible," Gronk continued. "Be able to spread it out. So if one thing crashes, one other thing may be up and it balances out. But I don't go anything too crazy at all. I like to take chances, definitely, but not with a significant part of my income. You can go bigger and take chances, but I like to keep it more basic and less fun."

With his trial-and-error era largely past him, Gronk has a better sense of what he enjoys and he's lucky enough to have the freedom to take advantage. It's why he partnered with eBay for a live collectibles show where he can discuss the card industry, rip packs and talk smack like he would when he was a kid. Growing up just outside of Buffalo, Gronkowski collected thousands of baseball, hockey and football cards, with a special attachment to his favorite player, Sammy Sosa. As he got older, Gronkowski used to scour eBay for paintball guns and supplies, making the partnership a natural fit.

Carmen Mandato via Getty Images

As a new NFL season approaches, Gronk said he was planning a 10-day vacation in August on a beach somewhere with crystal clear water to unwind and relax. He loves going to Europe and overseas because fewer people recognize him. A true vacation to him is away from the spotlight. 

"I love being able to wander and not have to worry and being in a safe spot," Gronk said. "A lot of people when I'm on vacation ask me if I play basketball because of my height and my build. And you know me and my personality, I say yep. I'm a basketball player. I'm in the G-League, and then they don't care anymore. I love to mess with people and give a funky answer because it just makes things fun."

Gronk just having fun will ultimately be the key to his life after football as an analyst, a podcaster, an endorser and an investor. So while he was unprepared for life outside the gridiron seven years ago, Rob Gronkowski now has a strong road map to navigate the years and decades to come.