He’s still walking on crutches, two weeks after undergoing surgery on a badly-sprained ankle. But that didn’t stop Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski from showing up at a minor-league hockey game between the Providence Bruins and Worcester Sharks on Friday night, hitching a ride on the back of a pickup truck to center ice, standing up without crutches, and dropping the ceremonial puck.
Some Patriots fans would say Wes Welker would have been a better choice to drop the puck. But Gronkowski didn’t drop it. Standing on his right leg with a cast still on his left, Gronkowski spiked it.
And it blew into at least four pieces. (Here’s the video.)
“Obviously it’s not 100 percent,” Gronkowski told the Boston Herald, referring either to his ankle or the puck, or both. “Just every day just getting better, and that’s all you can ask for. And obviously within a couple of weeks my goal is to be 100 percent and just keep on going day-by-day with it.”
Gronkowski also said he has “no idea” whether he’ll be able to join the team’s offseason workouts in April.
Come September, however, Gronkowski surely will be back. And he’ll be ready to spike footballs hard enough to break them into four pieces, too.
