Goodbye, Gronk

This probably caught a lot of us by surprise.

The fact that Rob Gronkowski is not playing in the NFL anymore is kind of a shock. The threatening retirement and all that always seemed like it was leverage to get more money or to stay in New England. But the guy actually did it. He took to Instagram this week and announced he was hanging up the spikes. At 29 years old, Gronk is a former NFL player. Totally nuts.

I guess all we can say now is thank you to Gronk for what he did for the Patriots. He truly did have an incredible career, even if it was marred by injury and he only played two "full" seasons.

Even so, the guy has three Super Bowl rings and made 80 touchdown catches in 115 regular season games, so it's hard to say anything negative about him. He put his body on the line for years for the Patriots. He's young. He has a long life ahead of him. He was always an entertaining guy. It's his life. It's his decision. We must respect it.

Some people will argue about who the greatest tight end in NFL history is and might try to say the answer is Tony Gonzalez or something. Truthfully, we don't really care because Gronk has three rings. How many does Tony Gonzalez have again? Take your time....

Let's be honest: this is most likely not going to be the last time we hear about Rob Gronkowski. He's the kind of guy who is probably going to do WWE, be in movies or be the next Michael Strahan. We shall find out in the near future. But for now, peace out Gronk. It's been real.

But for old time's sake, here are some highlights of Gronk being a beast.