Tom Brady weighs in on Rob Gronkowski's retirement rumors

Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady have played together for a total of 11 NFL seasons, with nine of those coming as members of the New England Patriots.

With that knowledge, it's safe to say that Tommy, as Gronk affectionately refers to Brady, knows his former favorite weapon pretty well.

With recent speculation surrounding the possibility of Gronkowski retiring, Brady gave his opinion on the matter on a recent episode of his Let's Go! podcast with co-hosts Jim Gray and Larry Fitzgerald:

"I don't know," said Brady. "I certainly hope [he plays]. I mean, I've watched him basically practice and play since he started in the NFL. He can certainly do it. It's a big commitment for all of us. It's a big commitment to keep playing. And I know when he's willing to make that commitment, he's unstoppable out there as a player. So he'll have a lot of opportunity in every aspect of life because of who he is and his personality and what he brings to what he does."

Brady is likely drawing from his own experience when speaking about it taking a big commitment to keep playing, especially since Gronk has already accomplished so much as a player.

Brady continued:

"So I sure hope so. And there's a lot of players that are gonna be facing those tough decisions and really weighing the risks and the rewards to continue to play. But Gronk is someone that I love. He's an inspirational person for me, an inspirational friend, teammate. And I think football's a lot better when he's in it."

If the tight end decides to play for another season, is there a chance that Brady could return to join him?

Would Tom Brady return if Rob Gronkowski decides to play next season?

Super Bowl LV

The seemingly obvious answer to this question would be no because the seven-time Super Bowl champion retired with Gronkowski still active on the team. But as of late, there have been small breadcrumbs revealing that TB12 may miss the game he loves to play as time goes on.

One piece of evidence to support this theory is the image he tweeted out hours before Super Bowl LVI was to take place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

The tweet referenced a notification that went off reminding the quarterback of the Super Bowl.

Who knows exactly when this was placed onto his calendar, but it's a subtle reminder that despite retiring to spend more time with his family, it's difficult to stop doing something that he loved for almost half of his entire life.

Perhaps Gronkowski could woo the three-time NFL MVP out of retirement with the hopes that he would return the favor and come back to play as Gronk once did for Brady in 2020 to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The GOAT did remind us to "never say never," so who knows what will happen.