Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez played together for three seasons with the New England Patriots before the latter went to prison for murder.
By now, you’re probably well aware of Hernandez’s legal issues and his death by suicide while behind bars. Before all that happened, the former University of Florida star exhibited plenty of disturbing behavior.
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On a new episode of the “Bussin’ with The Boys” podcast, host and former NFL offensive lineman Taylor Lewan asked Gronkowski about one bizarre rumor involving his fellow New England tight end.
Lewan said he had heard for years that Hernandez would occasionally pass the time in team meetings by pleasuring himself–“beating off and like doing crazy s–t.”
With his response, Gronkowski more or less confirmed the NSFW story.
“Possibly,” Gronkowski said, laughing. “That’s a possibility that one.
“I may or may not have seen it live. I’m not going to confirm nor deny. I love crazy s–t, though. I didn’t mind things like that. I was like, ‘Wow, that was pretty epic.’ I was a wild man myself. Nothing fazed me. I encouraged it.”
Hernandez and Gronkowski formed a potent 1-2 punch at tight end for New England from 2010-12, helping the Patriots reach Super Bowl XLVI.
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However, their partnership ended when Hernandez was arrested and later convicted of first-degree murder and weapons charges. He was sentenced to life in prison, where he later took his own life in 2017.
“I didn’t know it was that bad,” Gronkowski said of his teammate’s issues. “I knew that there was definitely some wild sides to him, but with everything coming out, there is some I would say that is true in the documentaries that come out, there’s some that’s probably exaggerated a little bit but there’s some not exaggerated at all either.”
“I was the guy that was truly there throughout his whole career in the same room, the whole entire time as him,” he later added. “It’s unfortunate, though, what happened because the talent was just through the roof, man. If we could have kept that tandem going, we would have been just truly unstoppable.”