it one more go Yodny Cajuste NFL Jersey , of course."WhitePatriots News Opinion and Analysis Contribute! FanPostsFanShotsAbout the Site List of Patriots Twitter AccountsWrite For Pats Pulpit!New User Welcome and Commenting GuideCommunity GuidelinesMastheadTopics Patriots Off-Season CoveragePatriots Opinion/AnalysisPatriots NewsPatriots Draft CoverageSportfolio ManagementPatriots Opinion/AnalysisThese Rob Gronkowski comeback rumors don’t make any senseNew,42commentsNot that we’d mind if Gronk did decide to give it one more go, of course.EDTShareTweetShareShareThese Rob Gronkowski comeback rumors don’t make any senseBrett Davis-USA TODAY SportsTake it from us, kids: just because Jason Witten does something doesn’t always mean it’s a good idea. Most of the time, it does, but occasionally, it absolutely does not. Exhibit A:Good Witten: switches from defensive end to tight end (2000)Also good Witten: (pretty much everything from then until retirement in 2017 in his Hall of Fame career)Not so good Witten: Monday Night Football (2018-2018).To-Be-Determined Witten: Comeback season 2019.Having said that, it took all of roughly 18 hours after Rob Gronkowski made us all cry into our Sunday night pizza for the COMEBACK SEASON 2019 train to get fired up, and as you can see, it really hasn’t lost any steam since then, and now it’s almost pool season. Observe:Let’s be clear: that would rule! The NFL and planet Earth in general is obviously a much better place with Gronk doing Gronk things in it. He’s the kind of talent you’d tune in to watch even if you hated the Patriots, like how Pats fans watched in begrudging admiration when Julio Jones caught bombs in triple coverage, or Kam Chancellor knocked a crossing receiver’s cleats off, or Odell Beckham when he’s posterizing defensive backs and not getting into fights with stationary objects.What doesn’t shake out when you do the math is the idea that Gronkowski would take a month and a half off after the Super Bowl, finally pull the trigger on retirement after kicking the idea around for at least a year already, and then just up and do a complete 180 this fall and lace ‘em up again.Let’s start with the obvious: by the end of his career (assuming it is over, of course), it’d probably be easier to list the body parts that Gronk didn’t break, twist Yodny Cajuste NFL Draft , sprain, tear, strain, or otherwise injure playing a game where defenders had to find new and creative (read: painful) ways to get him on the ground because, as any of us that cut our teeth on backyard football with kids bigger than us can tell you, just launching yourself at someone much larger than yourself usually ends poorly. For you, not them. Defensive backs in particular had to shoot their shot at his knees to take Gronk down, which ended at least one of his seasons and surely made several others much more difficult. And this past season in particular, Gronkowski got almost startlingly blunt on what it’s like to grind out a season at 29 years old when you’re taking more damage every weekend and not bouncing back like you could back in the day:Here’s how that shakes out from one year to the next as the years pile on:2017 season: 14 games started, 1,084 receiving yards, 69 receptions, 8 touchdowns2018 season: 11 games started, 682 receiving yards, 47 receptions, 3 touchdownsSomewhat surprisingly (or not, since this is pretty classic Gronk), he somehow still found a way to turn it the hell up in the postseason, so if there is a reason to hope for a comeback Yodny Cajuste Buffalo Bills Jersey , maybe that’s it. I mean:2017 postseason: 3 games, 218 receiving yards, 16 receptions, 3 touchdowns2018 postseason: 3 games, 191 receiving yards, 13 receptions, 0 touchdownsAside from the goose egg in the touchdown column, what else could you want?Back on the idea that this isn’t some decision Gronk made overnight, though, there’s also what he left on the table by choosing to hang ‘em up: according to ESPN’s Mike Reiss, Gronk’s re-worked contract would’ve paid him a base salary of $9,000,000 for the 2019 season, and while his financial acumen is pretty well-documented, that’s quite a few zeroes to say “Nah, I’m good” unless you’re pretty freaking sure it’s not worth it anymore.And finally, for the three of you still reading, we’ll once again check in with Tom Curran from NBC Sports Boston, who despite posting this on April Fool’s Day Color Rush Yodny Cajuste Jersey , caught up with Gronk post-Instagram announcement and asked him about making a comeback vs walking dogs for a living (which, there are definitely worse jobs to have):Oh, and he’d been kicking around the idea of retiring ever since he hung 116 yards and two touchdowns on the Eagles in the Super Bowl last season.Add all that up, and this isn’t a man who pulled the trigger on this just cause that’s how he woke up that afternoon. It’s the Gronk that we all know and love deciding that after banging his body around for the past two decades and almost having his career ended by injuries before he even graduated college looking around and realizing not only is the game getting tougher on him, but aside from padding his stats, he’s got nothing left to prove anyway.Having said all that....IF he does change his mind, though, you can bet the rent that I’ll be the first one to crack the glass on the framed Gronk jersey on my wall.Kind of a “Break in case of Awesome”. Philip Rivers is willing to admit that Tom Brady‘s better than he is. And he’s also clear that Brady’s among the best of all time.But the Chargers quarterback thinks the result of individual games aren’t the best way to measure his Patriots counterpart’s greatness.During an interview on the , Rivers pointed to the end of Super Bowl XLIX, when it was Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler‘s interception that sealed the win for New England over the Seahawks.“I remember thinking when the Patriots beat the Seahawks, when they had that interception against the Seahawks and that gave them what, their [fourth] championship?” Rivers said, via Matt Vautour of Masslive.com. “You know everyone said, ‘Well, he’s now the greatest of all time.’ And I thought to myself, I already thought he was already one of [the greatest] — I mean, how do you ever decide that?“It’s like the old Michael Jordan [debate], right? We could talk about that forever, too — but I already thought he was already one of the greatest of all-time Youth Yodny Cajuste Jersey , but because they intercepted the pass, he’s now the greatest of all time? What if the Seahawks were to run it in? And the Seahawks were to have won? Brady would have just played the exact same game. He didn’t do anything different, you know? . . . It is funny how that works, so I don’t look at that [Super Bowl wins].”The fact that Brady has stacked up six of them carries extra weight, but Rivers is right that the result of any one particular game can be random and overstated.Great quarterbacks (and great coaches) are the ones who keep their teams at the top of the pile for an extended period of time. The Patriots have done that better than anyone. But Rivers has kept the Chargers competitive for years, often in circumstances that wouldn’t suggest it. Andy Reid has a .611 winning percentage over 20 years, but like Rivers, has never won a title, so some are quick to dismiss him.Rivers said he thought Dan Marino, who also never won a Super Bowl, deserved to be in the conversation with Brady for the greatest quarterback of all time, while acknowledging that he’s not on that level.“A Brady-led team versus a Rivers-led team, we’re [winless],” Rivers said of the Chargers’ 0-5 record against the Patriots. “That’s just tells you a little bit head-to-head.”And even if Rivers won a Super Bowl, and beat the Patriots in the process, the big picture shouldn’t change in his view.