Bill Belichick compares Rob Gronkowski to Giants great Mark Bavaro

When it comes to the highest accolades any New York Giants fans can muster the name Mark Bavaro always seems to enter the equation.

On Friday, Patriots coach Bill Belichick invoked the name of the Giants great when comparing Rob Gronkowski's blocking ability to one of the toughest tight ends ever.

Photo by Tony Mangia

“Yeah, he’s one of the best blockers,” Belichick said of Gronk. “I mean, I’ll put him there with Bavaro in terms of the guys I’ve coached. I mean, it’d be hard for me to put anybody past Bavaro just because of the number of times he blocked Reggie White with no help.”

Belichick is very familiar with both of the tight ends. He was a defensive coach with the Giants from 1979-90 and saw Bavaro battle the likes of Lawrence Taylor and Carl Banks.

“I mean, those were as competitive matchups and practices I’ve ever seen,” Belichick said. “I mean, it was awesome to watch players of that level compete the way they competed. All three of those guys were just tremendous football players. So, I have a lot of accolades for Rob and his blocking. I’m just saying it’s hard for me to put anybody past Bavaro based on Reggie White, Banks and Taylor.”

High praise indeed.

Rob Gronkowski does 'grown-up stuff' in Foot Locker ad (VIDEO)

A hilarious new Kids Foot Locker’s spot with Rob Gronkowski, starts out with the New England Patriots tight end signing a few autographs for some young fans but declining their invitation to hang out.

“Sorry, guys,” he explains. “I’m a grown-up. I gotta go do grown-up stuff.”

The clip then jumps to the 6'6", 270-pound NFL star seriously into a video game, drinking chocolate milk with toys and stacks of pizza boxes all around him in a messy kid's bedroom.

Then he hears the ice cream truck going by...

Who doesn't want to be Gronk?

Tom Brady jumping off cliff not for faint-hearted or Patriots fans (VIDEO)

Chances are if there was a video of a New England Patriots player jumping off a rocky cliff into a small pool of water while on vacation it would be Rob Gronkowski, right?

Well Tom Brady, known mostly for sacrificing his body on the football field, is actually the one who took the death-defying leap and it seems Patriots fans weren't too thrilled about it.

This weekend as Brady posted a video on his Facebook page showing himself at the top of the rocky cliff first contemplating the plunge before someone (presumably wife Gisele) asks him, "Are you going to jump, Tom?"

The quarterback seems hesitant at first before taking the leap of faith with Pats fans' dreams of repeat Super Bowl hopes with him.

Here's the full video of Air Brady complete with the stirring Star Wars theme song:

Pretty awesome. But Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick would probably like to see Brady stick to less daring pursuits like getting buried in the sand.

Bill Belichick says Mark Bavaro worthy of Hall of Fame

Bill Belichick might have the best tight end in the NFL right now in Rob Gronkowski but, it was another brutish tight end that the Patriots coach made his bones with and still hasn't forgotten: Mark Bavaro.

At Tuesday's Media Day session, Belichick reminisced about being the Giants' defensive coordinator when Bavaro played for the Giants and helped the team to Super Bowl victories after the 1986 and 1990 seasons.

Photo: Tony Mangia

Although Belichick wouldn't compare Rambo and Gronk directly — "it's a different era, a different game" — Belichick had nothing but praise for the hard-nosed Bavaro, a fourth-round pick out of Notre Dame whose career was cut short by a knee injury.

"I think Mark's in a really special category," Belichick said. "His toughness, his overall complete play as a tight end and blocker, just as a total competitor was just outstanding. I don't think Mark has ever gotten the recognition that any of us that coached him or played with him know that he deserves."

While Bavaro's silent, no-nonsense approach to the game differed greatly from Gronk's ebullient style, Belichick praised their similar all-round abilities on the field.

"He [Bavaro] blocked [Eagles defensive end] Reggie White better than most tackles blocked him," Belichick said. "That alone should put him in the Hall of Fame. This guy was a great football player."

Bill Belichick heaps praise on former Giants TE Mark Bavaro via @Newsday http://t.co/hugMANK2qr
— Bob Glauber (@BobGlauber) January 28, 2015

Belichick recalled his favorite memory of Bavaro, and it wasn't his catch-and-run in a 1986 Monday night game against the 49ers when he carried about half the Niners defense on his back before being brought down. 

"I would say if there's a memory in my mind, it's of training camp of all the times that LT [Lawrence Taylor] and Carl [Banks] would line up against from Mark in one-on-ones," Belichick said. 

"Those are back in the days of training camp where you practiced every day in pads. There were no better battles in my entire career than watching Carl and LT go against Bavaro one-on-one. I mean, it was just awesome. All three of them were so good, so competitive and so tough."

If you need a reminder, here's the play that most fans remember:

Rob Gronkowski tweets logical reason why Patriots balls were soft

On Monday the NFL said it was investigating the alleged deflating of footballs during the Patriots lopsided victory over the Colts. Patriots coach Bill Belichick has said that his team will cooperate fully with the investigation of the Deflategate scandal until the tampering charges are cleared.

But he need not look any further than Rob Gronkowski for a logical explanation for the soft balls.

On his Twitter page, the tight end blamed the air loss on a simple theory that "Gronking May Cause Deflation."

Whoops lol pic.twitter.com/uLxN7A5cpq
— Rob Gronkowski (@RobGronkowski) January 20, 2015

And Gronk knows logic.

Gronk does Happy Dance after epic touchdown (VIDEO)

Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is used to scoring impressive touchdowns, but this effort in his team's 42-20 win on Sunday Night Football over the Indianapolis Colts was one for the ages. 

Gronk catches the ball on the 18-yard line, brushes off or runs over five Colts players before steamrolling into the end zone for a 26-yard score.

Then came a well deserved Happy Dance:

And all that before blocking Sergio Brown into an NBC camera on a previous play:

Scoring touchdowns just seems to come naturally to the Gronk. As does the dance:

Prince Amukamara posts video of himself crashing Bar Mitzvah party (VIDEO)

While Johnny Manziel and Rob Gronkowski may be tearing up the hot spots of Las Vegas this Memorial Day weekend, New York Giants cornerback Prince Amukamara hit a swinging bar of his own — that's bar as in Bar Mitzvah.

And shows he knows how to mazel tov with the best of them.

The 24-year-old Prince apparently spent Sunday night crashing some lucky guy's music-thumping celebration, and the exuberant Amukamara captured it all on Instagram:

Amukamara seems to be enjoying himself so much — he posted a couple more videos of the action:



Top that Johnny Football.

Gronkowski mocks Asian fan with joke about 'fried rice' (VIDEO)

It's hard to know if New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski knows about the uproar surrounding Richie Incognito's racist remarks these days — with all that preparation for his women's football clinic and everything — because the NFL's favorite frat boy openly mocked an Asian fan over the weekend, calling the guy "Leslie Chow" and joking about fried rice.

During his team's bye week, Gronk was hosting a Q&A with fans in Foxborough, MA Sunday night at Bar Louie Restaurant when people started dancing including an Asian man sporting a Gronk jersey, reported TMZ. 

According to the gossip site:

The Pats star acted surprised, and said — into a microphone for everyone to hear — "They told me he could only cook fried rice!" Then Gronk one upped himself by calling the fan "Leslie Chow" ... Ken Jeong's character from "The Hangover."At least one person in the group thought Gronk might have crossed a line -- because they immediately grabbed the mic and reminded the audience they all signed waivers agreeing to hand over ALL cell phone footage.

Now if that had taken place in an NFL locker room ... tsk tsk.

Anyway, someone managed to smuggle this footage of the frivolity out the front door.

Rob Gronkowski hosting women-only football clinic complete with Gronk-tinis

Now we know what  Rob Gronkowski was up to during the first six weeks of the season he lingered on the IR. The Patriots tight end was apparently laying out plans for making football even more female friendly in a singles pick-up bar atmosphere. And Gronk is the featured single.

Any 21-year-old female who attends Gronkowski's inaugural three-hour 'Football 101 Women's Clinic' on Nov. 11 will have access to the NFL star and a bar full of beer, wine and Gronk-tinis. That last concoction could easily be the best part of the $99 clinic that's being held at Harvard Stadium in Allston, Mass. at what could be called TGIG's.

The Gronk-tini alone will probably be worth the fee, but besides that, attendees will also get a T-shirt, a photo with Gronkowski and a Gronk autograph. Ladies will be able to drink all the Gronk-tinis they can during a cocktail hour leading up to the clinic. There will also be beer and wine, but why drink either of those when the house specialty will be freely poured.

Coincidentally, the 'Fun and Educational Experience' falls on the Patriots Bye Week — so it's not a school night for Gronk.  And ladies, you will be carded at the door.

Gronk offered porn role with old friend Bibi Jones

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Matt Damon says healthy Pats would have beaten Ravens

Matt Damon is still in denial about the Baltimore Ravens beat-down of his beloved New England Patriots.

The actor and Boston native still will not admit the Ravens 28-13 trouncing of the Pats in Sunday's AFC Championship game could have happened if New England had been fully healthy.

"A lot of injuries, they couldn't have beaten us at full strength," said Damon as he arrived at LAX last night.  His remarks were later posted to the celebrity website TMZ.com.

Damon referenced the Patriots playing without Pro Bowl tight end Rob Gronkowski, cornerback Aqib Talib and running back Stevan Ridley as the main reasons for the upset.

Gronk missed the entire game after re-breaking his forearm last week against the Texans while Talib and Ridley suffered a leg injury and a concussion, respectively, during the championship game.

When asked who he would pick in the Super Bowl between the Ravens and 49ers, Damon stuck to his guns and picked neither.

"I'm going for a healthy New England team, that's the best team in the country," he said.  "'[Baltimore and San Francisco] are both pretty good.  They're like the same team, real similar."

They might not be as good as the Patriots in the movie star's eyes, but at least they're healthy.

How about them apples?

Ex-porn star says Gronkowski's poor play was because he was 'thinking of me'

Rob Gronkowski may be having more fun than anyone in the NFL these days — and has the photos to prove it.  Ever since he was video-taped dancing shirtless following the New England Patriots loss to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, Gronk's life has been a non-stop headline in the gossip pages.

Now Britney Maclin, the ex-adult film star, who caused controversy last year when he posed shirtless — as usual — with her during a Patriots' bye week, has resurfaced and is taking the rap for the tight end's poor play last Sunday in a loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

A scantily-clad Maclin posted a photo to her Twitter account early Wednesday morning of her and Gronkowski in a series of Gronk-related tweets.

"I pic of gronk of i [sic] that no one has ever seen lol — naughty," Maclin posted early this morning.

The blond party girl took the blame (credit?) for Gronkowski's dropped touchdown passes in the Patriots' 20-18 loss to the Cardinals.

"Gronk told me he dropped those balls bc he was thinking of me!  Gotta get back in his life," Maclin tweeted with a smile emoticon.

However a subsequent tweet indicated that Maclin may have been the victim of a prank: "OMG! I'm partying & these Boston took my phone so they could post those pics, [expletive deleted] This is gonna be drama."

Gronkowski's off-the-field antics have earned him a reprimand from the Patriots before.

The tight end owned up to his questionable play as his own fault.  "I got that penalty at the end holding that guy" he said.  "You can't have things like that happen."