There’s no question that Tom Brady took some abuse on the comedy special The Roast of Tom Brady (available to stream with a Netflix subscription), but when it came to who got hit the hardest, some of the night’s harshest and most hilarious jokes were aimed at former NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski. It’s no surprise then that when it came time for Gronk to get his revenge, he didn’t hold back. According to fellow roaster Drew Bledsoe, Gronkowski went way off-script, to the point that they weren’t sure he’d ever go back to the teleprompter.
Behind-The-Scenes Of Rob Gronkowski’s Set At The Tom Brady Roast
A number of stories have come out since the comedians and football greats got together to honor Tom Brady by mercilessly tearing him down in front of millions of people. For instance, we’ve learned that the GOAT was legit mad about one of the jokes and that he’ll never do another roast due to how it affected his kids. For former Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe, there were jokes he wishes he would have told, but it sounds like Rob Gronkowski did not have similar regrets. That’s because the tight end went wildly off-script in order to get his shots in. Bledsoe said on The Dan Patrick Show:
We all appreciate Gronk because he just gets to be Gronk, and the funny thing is we’re all sitting up there on the stage and we can see the teleprompter, and Gronk was so far off script that we did not know if he was coming back. Like, he was out wandering in the wilderness.
It was obvious for anyone who attended The Roast of Tom Brady or watched it on Netflix that Rob Gronkowski was having a blast during his set. He was fully feeding off of the crowd’s energy, so it was no surprise that he chose to ad-lib a little. At least it was no surprise to his girlfriend Camille Kostek, who told Extra she’d gotten a preview of his improvisations when he was rehearsing. Kostek said:
You know that they have their own behind-the-scenes in the locker room, so having it broadcast live to millions of people watching at home and the live audience at the Forum, I just knew they were gonna just let these jokes rip. And they were gonna go off-script a little bit. Rob, a lotta bit. He really went off-script at times. I heard him practicing, and there were a lot of things that I was like, ‘That wasn’t in it,’ and then you would hear him say right after, ‘I just came up with that one right now.’
Camille Kostek confirmed that her boyfriend was not at all bothered by the jokes lobbed at him, revealing that they’d rewatched it “a couple of times” and saying Gronk was still laughing days afterward.
What Did Rob Gronkowski Say During The Roast?
Drew Bledsoe insists that Rob Gronkowski is “really smart,” and that playing dumb is just part of his schtick. While that may be true, the retired tight end leaned into the persona for Tom Brady’s roast, telling sophomoric jokes that revolved largely around rumors about Brady’s sexual orientation — particularly when it came to Julian Edelman. After telling roastmaster Kevin Hart that he’d “taken shits bigger and blacker than you,” Rob Gronkowski went on to tell Edelman:
Everyone kissed Tom’s ass. Even I did, that’s fine to admit. But Julian, you’re the only one who used tongue.
He even admitted to going off-script at one point. After a joke about Randy Moss being from West Virginia, “where dating your sister is as common as dating your other sister,” Gronk gave a wave at the audience and said:
By the way, we’re talking about sisters. What’s up, Tom’s sisters? Yo. I just made that up on the spot, too.
And after a night of enduring endless jokes about his intelligence, Rob Gronkowski joined in, taking a shot at himself as well as firing another at his former New England and Tampa Bay teammate, saying:
Tom’s just like the avocados he eats; I think he’s a fruit but I’m just totally not sure.
If you want to hear the rest of what Gronk and everyone else had to say, The Roast of Tom Brady is available to stream, and be sure to check out everything else that’s new and coming soon to Netflix.