Joe Burrow Recruited Hall of Fame Tight End Rob Gronkowski to Cincinnati Bengals

Burrow's discussed it a bit on Thursday.

Bengals Joe Burrow (9) warms up before their game against the Steelers at Paycor Stadium on Sunday December 1, 2024. / Phil Didion/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CINCINNATI — Joe Burrow tried to recruit Rob Gronkowski out of retirement after he left the Buccaneers in 2021, but Gronkowski thought it was a joke.

You can't make this one up as Burrow made the first move to add a hall-of-fame talent that raved about him right after retiring for good. Gronkowski discussed the full story on The Dudes on Dudes Podcast.

"You gotta go way back a little bit when Malcolm Brown was drafted to the Patriots," Grokowski said to his co-host and former teammate Julian Edelman. "I got a text message the night of the draft and it was like, 'Hey, Rob, it's Malcolm Brown, pleasure to be on your team. It's an honor to be your teammate.' And I wrote back like, 'Man, you know, great to have you on. And then eventually, that night, called the number. It was not Malcolm Brown. Well, I got duped. It was just a random fan and they duped me to answer back. Fast forward. I was like, I ain't never gonna let that happen to me ever again. I ain't answering random numbers. Like, after I retired, everyone's still trying to get me to play. You know, ask me questions in the media when I had to do some media rounds, like, 'Yo, who is the quarterback that you would love to play with? I'm like, 'Joe Burrow because he reminds me of (tom) Brady, and I just love the way that he presents himself in the pocket.' Went everywhere, and I got a text message, 'Yo, bro, what's up man, I saw you talking about me in the media. It's Joe Burrow. I would love for you if you came to the Cincinnati Bengals.' I was like, I ain't getting got again, this is nuts. I ain't falling for this."

Cincinnati's franchise player got to call him out for the ghosting at Michael Rubin's white party this past summer.

"I'm at the white party this year," Gronkowski continued. "I go up to him, I walk right by. I'm like, 'What up, Joe? Nice to meet you.' And then, within like 10 seconds, he's like, 'Yo, you never responded to me. And I knew exactly what he was talking about. And I was like, 'No freaking way that was actually you, bro? I'm sorry, I apologize.' Man, because of Malcolm Brown."

Burrow recruiting other talents doesn't surface often, but he has a voice in the organization and is tailoring it the way he sees fit. He touched on that during thursday press conference.

"I think I've done a pretty good job of that so far," Burrow said about who he wants to play with. "I think more so knowing the more experience that I have, the more I understand, like who fits into our system, who would work well with us, and less the recruiting part, and more, you know, understanding the kind of guys that we want to go after in those departments."

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