TAMPA, Fla. — The Bucs are learning quickly that everything they do will be scrutinized in the Tom Brady-Rob Gronkowski era.
Less than a week after it was suggested Brady might have violated NFL rules by showing up at the home of a Bucs assistant coach to pick up a playbook, Gronkowski finds himself under the microscope.
Pro Football Talk reported Wednesday that “it’s possible that the Bucs may have fractured a rule or two” after the tight end told a YouTube audience over the weekend that he had the team’s playbook well before he was traded to Tampa Bay.
“I was in a Tampa Bay Buccaneers playbook four weeks ago, and I wasn’t even on the team,” Gronkowski said Saturday night on the Bud Light Seltzer DrafterParty on YouTube Live, according to Pro Football Talk.
That would mean Gronkowski received a playbook in late-March. At that time, Gronkowski was retired but still under contract with the Patriots. He wasn’t traded to the Bucs until April 21.
Possession of the playbook might not be a rules breach in itself. But if Gronkowski received it from the Bucs, was in communication with them or it was part of a recruiting pitch while he was under another team’s control, it could be.
The development comes six days after Brady’s visit to the home of Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich was called into question. The visit received national attention because Brady first entered a neighbor’s house by mistake.
Earlier this week, it was determined that the visit violated no rules because, “it was a brief personal visit, and Tom picked up the playbook,” an NFL spokesman said.
Because league facilities remain closed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, teams can’t conduct offseason organized training activities together. The Bucs began virtual OTAs this week.
In Gronkowski’s first interview with Bucs reporters last week, he said his biggest priority was to get the Bucs’ playbook down but said he hadn’t “dived” into it yet.
“I’m very excited to,” Gronkowski said. “I’m letting things settle down a little bit.”
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