Beneath Gronk's goofy exterior lies 'brilliant' football mind

Rob Gronkowski was giggling again.

Sitting at his designated podium in the middle of the chaos that was Media Day, he read from an erotic novel with a title bearing his name, A Gronking To Remember, and chuckled like a Little Leaguer who had just seen something not meant for him behind a convenient store counter.

This is the Gronkowski that everyone has come to know. While his play on the field has made him one of the game's most recognizable figures, his goofiness has become his brand.

He's bought a party bus that's now enveloped in BodyArmor SuperDrink advertising. He's posed with kittens for an ESPN photo shoot. He's cracked crude jokes with Conan.

But there is another Gronkowski to whom the world is not privy.

He arrives to Gillette Stadium early. He handles more on-the-field responsibility than any player not named Tom Brady. And he never has to be told the same thing twice; once he hears a coaching point or sees it on a grease board, it's downloaded into what some of his teammates consider a quasi football super-computer.

"Oh my God," said fullback James Develin, who got his chemical engineering degree from Brown University and is one of four players who sits in on tight end meetings daily. "He's brilliant. He's really brilliant the way he understands our offense and the way he conceptually picks things up. He's a special player, whether it's in his head or on the field. The guy is just incredible."

Those who work with Gronkowski on a daily basis know that's not necessarily the general consensus on their unanimous All-Pro.

Earlier this season, Bill Belichick remembered meeting Gronkowski before the NFL draft in 2010. The Patriots coach made it a point to explain that Gronkowski was clearly very serious about football even back then -- though it might not have been readily apparent after a brief conversation.

"If you meet Rob for 10 or 15 minutes, you might get an impression that may or may not be what it’s like to have him in your office, in a classroom and on the field for six, seven hours a day," Belichick said with a smile. "It might be a little bit different . . . Potentially."

With more time inside the walls of Gillette Stadium, it was clear that Gronkowski's intelligence quotient for football was something to behold.

By his second season in New England's complicated offensive system, he was able to absorb a large amount of information at a rapid pace and carry it with him onto the practice field where coaches had him line up all over the team's formations.

Now, as the offense continues to grow and evolve, so too does Gronkowski's understanding of his myriad roles.

"Rob's a very bright guy," said offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. "We ask a lot of him. And he won't let us down. He refuses to let us down with what we ask of him.

"He's obviously very intricately involved in the running game. He's involved in the passing game. We move him all over the formation. We put him outside, we put him inside, we motion him. He's involved in third down, red zone. He's involved in everything. I kind of relate it to the quarterback position.

"This isn't a guy that you say, 'Hey, run seam routes all day.' We don't do that. It's obviously something he can do, but he does so many other things well, and he works so hard to do them well that it shouldn't go unsaid."

At the same time, it should not be misunderstood: Gronkowski does not lead a double life. He is who he is.

While studious when he needs to be, and in possession of what his teammates describe as a beautiful football mind, he does his best to keep things light. The Patriots say there is a balance between Gronk the frat brother and Gronk the book worm.

"When you talk about his demeanor in the meeting room, he's like Tom Brady," McDaniels said. "When you talk about the way he prepares and practices, same thing.

"We have a ton of guys that fall into that boat, and Rob's one of them. I don't know if we have many guys that work harder than he does. I don't know if we have many guys that care more about doing their job exactly right than he does. At the same time, we love his demeanor, the fact that he can have a lot of fun doing this. I think it rubs off on our group."

The players who spend the most time with Gronkowski are his fellow tight ends. Michael Hoomanwanui, Tim Wright and Develin all look to Gronkowski simultaneously as both a model of persistence -- they know what he's gone through to return to form and then some after a season-ending knee injury in 2013 -- and a means of comic relief.

Tight ends coach Brian Daboll, to whom Gronkowski has become very close since Daboll took over his current post at the start of the season, does his best to maintain order in meetings. ("We're pretty on-task," he said Wednesday.) But Gronkowski, the man Develin calls "our resident jokester," gets his laughs in when he can.

Even when Gronkowski is at his most scholarly, there sits on the tight ends meeting-room white board a series of Gronkowski's funniest quotes of the year -- going as far back as training camp -- that have been kept there for posterity, protected from the eraser's swipe.

"He's fun," Hoomanawanui said. "I tell that to everyone. But the most important thing is he gets his work done first. I'm not saying it's all work and it's all serious the whole time. He cracks jokes and Daboll will say, 'Alright, alright, let's get back to work.' But he's fun. But the first thing I'll say is he's hard-working, and it shows."

That work will be on display Sunday when the Patriots will use Gronkowski like a queen piece on a chess board, moving him around in a variety of ways in order to attack Seattle's weaknesses and keep him away from its strengths.

The only reason he's able to do that -- and oftentimes do it at a hurry-up pace -- is because of the work he does in between one-liners.

"It's a lot of studying and a lot of commitment to trying to get all those things done," Daboll said. "It's not just, 'We play this, and that's that.' There's a lot of things in your mind that you have to be ready to adjust to, whether it's a conversion like a receiver might run, whether it's a tight end block, whether it's a tackle block or a combination block. Who's covering me? How are they covering me? Is it bracket coverage? Is it single coverage? Is it 'backers or is it a safety?

"There's a lot of preparation for our players. But I would say he really puts in the time and the commitment, and he's dedicated to his craft."

Though his image may at times suggest otherwise, the proof is in his play.

-- Phil Perry, CSNNE.com