Like I always say: Work smarter, not harder.
Looks like Gronk feels the same way.
Over the past year, lots of people have had to get used to working remotely. And sometimes that includes trying to find ways to make it seem like you’re working when you’re really laying on the couch playing Xbox or in the kitchen pouring yourself a drink at 1 PM.
And it turns out that people with office jobs aren’t the only ones trying to figure out ways to get around working virtually.
During his Super Bowl week media availability, Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski let the media in on a secret about how he tricked his coaches into thinking he was actually working out during the offseason.
Before players were allowed back into the team facility (and while most gyms and workout facilities were closed due to COVID), teams required players to record themselves working out at home and send the videos to their coaches in order to get credit for the workout. And while Gronk says that he initially enjoyed the virtual training because he could always delete and re-record a video if he felt it didn’t make him look good enough, he eventually got tired of having to work out and film videos to send to his coaches.
So, like so many others have done during this strange time of virtual work, Gronk found a way to make it look like he was working when he wasn’t.
“I started tricking him. I would bring my shirt out, and then I would bring another shirt out, so when I’m running the sprints, I would film myself, like, 15 times for that session, that workout session.
But I would run it in a couple different shirts – because you only had to send in, like, two or three reps – so that when the next time came, I didn’t have to film myself because I already filmed myself running in a different shirt every time on that one day.
And he doesn’t have a clue to this day that I was tricking him about half the time during those virtual workouts.”
Umm, I think he knows now, Gronk.
To be fair, it sounds like Gronk was actually working out every day, he just wasn’t recording it. And it also doesn’t seem like his offseason tricks have hurt his conditioning any: He hasn’t missed a practice all season, and it’s the first time since 2011 that he hasn’t missed a regular-season game.
Oh, and his team is getting ready to play in the Super Bowl this weekend. So yeah, I don’t think his coach is going to be too mad at him.
Gronk, man. What an absolute legend – both on and off the field.
