Rob Gronkowski Says Patrick Mahomes Has a Shot to Catch Tom Brady

Sports Illustrated

Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman joined Sports Illustrated on behalf of Bounty and discussed if Patrick Mahomes could catch Tom Brady.

Transcript

00:00 You know who I have right now. We have Super Bowl champions. We have Gronk, Julian Edelman. Guys,

00:05 how we feeling? We're feeling pretty good. I mean, we're feeling as good as we possibly

00:09 could feel in Vegas. We've been here for three nights now. It feels like I've been here for 12

00:14 days. But that's Vegas for you. You can't really sleep. So I've been just rolling around in bed.

00:19 And now I'm just here, man, and just getting the juices flowing with my wingman Julian right here.

00:24 All right. Let's talk about the big dog, Coach Belichick. Are you guys surprised that he hasn't

00:30 landed a job? What do you all think about that? Yeah, I'm very surprised. But it just shows me

00:37 that not everyone really wants to win in this league. People want to have comfort jobs. They

00:43 want to have cake jobs. They don't want to have any kind of uncomfortableness when someone comes

00:50 into a building, which you need to feel those feelings to win. Yeah. OK. Super Bowl, you guys

00:57 played in plenty. Give me, Julian, a Super Bowl routine that you had to do prior to the game.

01:05 You know, our team was really good at trying to do everything to keep your regular week routine

01:16 available at the Super Bowl. And I was a guy that like I did the sleep tank, the saltwater pods.

01:22 Yeah. And I would go in there like three times a week. And we'd always find in all the Super

01:26 Bowl cities, we'd find like a place that had them. So there'd be a designated time where you could go

01:31 and do that. And you just try to do everything like you did throughout the year. We got you

01:36 there. So I remember that was specific. It was like going to like on a field trip. You know what

01:41 I mean? You're at school, you're doing your things, but you had a little excitement because

01:45 you're away from school and you're with the fellows a lot more because you're having that

01:49 hotel life. So, you know, everything to try to keep that regular routine going. All right. So

01:55 I played seven years. I only went to the playoffs once, had one game. Aaron Rodgers took us home.

02:02 Do you going into a Super Bowl game? Is it does it feel like is it like every game you have the

02:09 jitters that you might not be able to sleep that night? You might not be able to eat. You can eat

02:13 during the AFC Championship game, but this game you can't like talk to me about that because I

02:16 don't know what it feels like. Man, that's a really good question, actually. But like what

02:22 Julian just said is that Coach Belichick had us prepare like, you know, it was, you know,

02:27 a typical game. Yeah. He kept us on the routine. You don't switch up what's working. Yeah. But

02:33 the nerves of the game, you know, when every whenever I stepped out on the field, no matter

02:37 what, if it was a preseason game, a regular season game, playoff game, I had the nerves going. My

02:41 heart's always beating fast. And what got me to settle them down is going out, you know, once the

02:46 first quarter starts and going out and actually playing the game. And after about four or five

02:50 plays, everything settles in. I start relaxing. The heartbeat slows down. You know, the game slows

02:55 down. The nerves are going away. And then you're just playing the game of football. That's what

02:59 the Super Bowl game is. It's another game of football. It's you prepared for it, just like

03:04 how you prepared for any regular season game. Just don't switch up your routine. You know,

03:08 do what you've been doing. Don't have 10 energy drinks. Have just the one.

03:11 Some billions of say, no, people don't realize is you have two weeks to prepare for this game.

03:19 Yeah. So, you know, you take you put your work in back in the home stadium at home that first week,

03:26 you have competitive practice and then you go over all these situations so much by the time it's game

03:32 time, you're like, I just want to play the game because, you know, by the time it's Friday today

03:38 going into the game, you've seen every situation in your head. You've seen the third downs,

03:43 the first and second down plan, the red area plan, the five two point plays that we put in just in

03:48 case we need it. You know, so you see it, you talk about it so much. You've been through the media,

03:54 all the distractions, and you just want to get out there and play and you feel the electricity

03:58 of the stadium. You feel that it's something bigger. Once that first ball is snapped,

04:05 you get out there, you run on the field, you get hit. It's just football.

04:09 You guys played with the greatest of all time, Tom Brady. Patrick Mahomes has done something

04:19 that pretty much only Tom Brady has done. Do you think with a win today, he can catch Brady

04:27 in that goal conversation? I know it's not done yet. He's only been in the league about six,

04:32 seven years, and obviously, you know, it's a journey. It's not a sprint.

04:34 But do you think Patrick Mahomes could catch Brady potentially?

04:40 I think Patrick Mahomes is the only quarterback that has the potential to catch Brady.

04:46 There's going to be so many variables and factors that play into it over the next, you know,

04:52 15 years. Does he want to play till he's 40 years old? Does he want to play till he's 45?

04:58 You don't know that. That's only up to him. And there's so many other things that have to go

05:02 right. How long is coach Andy Reid going to be the head coach for as well? I mean, that's a big

05:06 variable right there. How long is Travis Kelsey going to play with him as his number one weapon

05:11 throughout his whole tenure as a quarterback? So there's so much that goes into it. But if there's

05:15 one guy that can catch Tom Brady, it's Patrick Mahomes and there's no one else. But only time

05:20 will tell if that happens. And if you ask me, I don't I don't think that it's going to be

05:25 achievable because what Tom Brady did is just spectacular. Yes. Tom is a freak. Yes.

05:32 Yes. Gronk, talk about Travis Kelsey and what he's been doing, because before him, it was you.

05:38 So being able to, you know, take Jerry Rice's record, doing things that we didn't think anybody

05:46 could do, especially at that position, especially after you talk about Travis. Yes. Travis Kelsey

05:51 has put the, you know, tight end position, you know, on the map tremendously. I mean, it's been

05:56 on the map for now about a decade or so. I mean, compared to like the 1990s and early 2000s, there

06:01 was there was great tight ends. But, you know, Travis Kelsey has taken it to another level as

06:06 well. And what he's been doing at that position has just been spectacular. I mean, seven one thousand

06:11 yard seasons in a row. It's hard for a wide receiver to even do that. And then he almost had

06:16 his eighth in a row, but he decided to sit out the last game of the season, which was the right call.

06:19 I mean, you had the playoffs coming up. You need to rest in the position and the slot slotting of

06:24 the playoffs weren't going to change. So there was no reason to play. But also what he's been doing

06:28 in the playoffs, you know, his records, touchdowns, receptions, all that. It's just been spectacular.

06:33 It's been great to see a guy at his caliber just keep that tradition of the tight end,

06:37 you know, on the map. I mean, he's changing the position of how it's played and he just knows

06:42 how to get open all the time, man, which is just unbelievable. It's crazy. All right, guys,

06:47 before I get you out of here, who you got winning the game this week? Niners twenty four twenty one.

06:54 I'm going with the Niners thirty one twenty one. Hard to bet against Patrick Mahomes.

07:02 I've already lost a couple of times now that I'm a gambler because I'm out of the National Football

07:06 League. Yes. Let him know he's. But I'm going to tickle the devil again and try to do it. Oh,

07:12 tickle, tickle, tickle while we're tickling. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

07:21 Guys, talk to us about your partnership with bounty. All right. Well, I've been with bounty

07:25 for a little bit. Now they had a wingman concepts this year. So I recruited my wingman who's been

07:31 my wingman from the very beginning. So it just made sense. Gave Julian a call. Hey, man, there's

07:35 a bounty campaign going on. I need a wingman for it. And he goes, I'm all in. I've been your wingman

07:40 since you got, you know, to the New England Patriots as a rookie. So it just made sense.

07:43 And there's a saying a good old saying out there. And I'm from Buffalo. So there's good old saying

07:47 been around for a while. You know, you can't have football without wings, especially Buffalo

07:52 Wild Wings. And you can't have those wings without bounty. Yes. Perfect for a messy situation, which

08:00 we've had to wipe a lot for each other. Yeah. Wipe us clean with these paper towels,

08:06 bounty paper towels. Ladies and gentlemen, Gronk Julian Edelman. Appreciate you guys

08:11 for stopping by. Yes. Thank you. Good to see you.

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