Instead of celebrating a big win over the Browns and being on top of the world, I found myself lying in the back of an ambulance. My leg had been braced tight so I couldn’t move it and we were headed for the hospital so they could check out my head and knee. I had gotten the cobwebs out from the concussion. My dad was sitting next to me on the ride and I could see the concern on his face. I knew I was in real trouble. If people thought I was injury-prone after the five surgeries in thirteen months, what were they going to say now that I needed season-ending knee surgery as well? The bad thoughts kept trying to get deep into my mind that maybe my body just wasn’t going to hold up.
I spent the night with a bad headache, dizziness, seeing spots, and nausea. My right knee was swollen like a grapefruit from torn ACL and MCL ligaments. To let the swelling go down and have the best chance of a full recovery, I had to wait a month to have the reconstructive surgery. That was depressing. I looked at myself differently, like I had let everyone down. I went from being superfast, superbig, superathletic, and superstrong to super-unable to walk. I felt humbled, humiliated, and devastated. I was down and couldn’t do anything to prove myself and make up for the Super Bowl loss. This new injury was breaking me and it was getting harder and harder to keep in my heart the belief that I could come back and be the Gronk.
Like I said, I felt like I was at rock bottom . . . that is, until I visited the kids at Boston Children’s Hospital with teammate Stevan Ridley, who pushed me around in a wheelchair. It was Christmastime again.
When I visited these sweet young kids who were dealing with real-life adversity and truly fighting for their lives, I was amazed at their strength. I couldn’t believe how genuinely happy they were to see Stevan and me. We sang Christmas songs, played board games, and did a lot of other fun activities together. They were so quick to laugh, smile, and have fun that it taught me what heart really is, and what’s really important. It meant so much to me to be able to share with them some happiness and fun. I was very emotional, and was blown away by their courage and will to keep fighting, no matter what. I told them to watch me, that I would come back next season and they could root us on to win the Super Bowl.
That day changed everything for me. I realized those kids weren’t escaping reality, they were changing reality. They were choosing to appreciate the good and fight off the bad. Suddenly my knee surgery seemed like nothing. As I said goodbye to the kids and Stevan wheeled me out, I didn’t feel sorry for myself. I felt angry that I had let an injury, not a life-threatening illness or disease, get me down. I wasn’t able to get up and walk, but I wanted to get up and fight. These kids showed me what real heart is and I knew I wasn’t going to let this latest physical setback break me.
Dr. James Andrews did my knee surgery on January 9, 2014, in Pensacola, Florida. While he was doing the operation, my dad and Drew actually watched it on a big TV monitor visible through the operating room window. I was happy to get that done with.
I did my physical therapy in Miami with Ed Garabedian, who is phenomenal, and my strength and conditioning training with, of course, Pete Bommarito. Drew and I spoke with the Patriots about it first to let them know this wasn’t going to be another Summer of Gronk and that they didn’t have to worry about me partying in South Beach. The team knew Ed and Pete were top guys and that I would be taking care of business.
I spent a couple of months at a sweet pad in downtown Miami and focused on getting my knee right. With each passing day, just as the strength in my leg came back a little bit more, so did my enthusiastic, playful, and happy personality. During the week I did my work with Ed and Pete. On the weekends I went to a party here and there to reenergize.
In mid-March, my boy Mojo came to visit me. We went to a daytime pool party, which is our favorite kind of fiesta, especially in Miami, where it is summer all year long. You know Mojo was having a good time, party rocking in his Zubaz outfit, dancing nonstop with every girl in the place. I just sat on an outdoor couch and put my leg up. I couldn’t dance or move around, but just being around the action picked my spirits up. Sitting at home on the couch doesn’t cut it for me.
Jason Rosenhaus showed up to visit for a few minutes and then Mike Katz, my guy at Rosenhaus Sports, kept the party going. Mike is an honorary Party Rocker. While he can’t hang and keep up with us the whole night, he’s the funniest guy in the world, he’s hilarious and crazy—the perfect complement to Drew and Jason for me. Drew is great in dealing with Coach Belichick, Jason has the contract numbers stuff handled for me, and Mike and his brother Jason “J.K.” Katz are my designated party guys. Mike fits right in with my Party Rocking crew and J.K. is awesome at getting us into wherever we want to go and making sure we are taken care of.
My fans, even if they didn’t realize it, really helped me out that summer. Wherever I went, and even though I was in Miami, my fans were there and gave me mad love. They were so positive I would be back, and so complimentary, that their good energy flowed right into mine.
I did have some fun one afternoon with the Miami-Dade police SWAT team. Mike and Jason Katz set it up for me to go to the firing range and shoot all kinds of cool weaponry. Then I was made an honorary police officer for a day and went on an actual drug bust. I stayed by the truck and watched from outside as the SWAT team kicked in the door and chased down the bad guys. Riding in the truck with ten SWAT guys all armed up and ready for the raid, then seeing them kick in the door, throw smoke grenades, barge in, and take the bad guys down as they tried to flee was extremely cool.
It was like being in an episode of Cops. I’ve got nothing but mad respect for the courage those guys show every day doing their job to protect the neighborhood and keep us safe. To top it off, I went up in a police helicopter with Mike and J.K. That ride was scary!
Aside from a little fun here and there, I got a lot of awesome work done in Miami. Wherever I went, I was disciplined and always had my knee elevated and iced. I lifted weights to get my upper body stronger than it had ever been before. My six-pack was better than ever. Seeing my knee get better and my upper body all jacked got me hyped up.
While waiting on the parking valet guys at my condo one day to go out to dinner, I got impatient and told Mike Katz to shoot a video of me doing push-ups, to show Coach Belichick I was training around the clock. The video showed me in push-up position on the curb. While in push-up position I yelled out, “Yo, Drew, send this to Bill! We’re waiting for our car to go out to dinner and look what we’re doing! Push-ups at the valet station!” While I beasted out more push-ups, Mike chimed in and said, “Yeah, Bill! You’re gonna see a new man!”
I didn’t send it to Coach Belichick. I don’t think Drew did, either. While I have occasionally texted Tom some video of me party rocking in the middle of the night, I must admit I haven’t done that with Coach Belichick . . . yet!
The bottom line was that when I stepped onto that plane in Miami, bound once again for Boston, it was goodbye to that injury-plagued year. I put it all behind me. Now it was time to step back into the ring and start my 2014 season. I had fallen hard in 2013; in fact, I fell so hard that I got a concussion. Since then, every fan I had seen, and especially all the kids, had told me that I would be back. That I could do it. The moment we touched down at Logan Airport, I knew with everything I had that it was time to prove them right.