Rob Gronkowski's Patriots don't play the Broncos until Sunday night. That leaves plenty of time to binge-eat on Thursday, let digestion runs its course, and be back in action by kick-off. Right?
Wrong. Gronk may love food, and savor the prospects of eating an infant's worth of food in one sitting, but that's a recipe for football disaster. Hard as it is, he'll be keeping his intake under control.
"There's mental toughness right there," Gronkowski tells NESN. "Knowing that you've got the huge pie in front of you and only eating a little piece even though you want to eat the whole pie. So definitely know what your limit is because I know anyone in this locker room can put down like six pounds of food and come in the next day a little sluggish. "
Plenty of temptations will be on the table for Gronk on Thursday. His favorite?
"Stuffing," Gronkowski said. "That always goes good with the turkey. When someone makes a dry turkey, you always need a cup of extra gravy or something on top of that. But stuffing always goes good. You just put the stuffing on top of whatever you’re about to eat, and it makes it delicious."
Of course it's fitting that Gronk knows how to handle himself at the Thanksgiving dinner table. This is a guy who can focus on the task at hand. In the offseason, it's a non-stop party -- he's got the bus to prove it. Gronk's post-Super Bowl binge was so notorious that he famously wouldn't know what city he was in on a given day.
But he's all business during the football season.
"I've been playing for six years, and this is my sixth Thanksgiving during the season. So just enjoy the food, enjoy your friends and family and have a good time, but at the same time we're just focused on the Denver Broncos."
