Rob Ninkovich is not making Patriots fans feel any better this week.
The former teammate of Gronkowski and Brady and current ESPN analyst took to Instagram after the news broke of Gronk coming back to the league as a member of the Bucs, only to joke about himself coming back as a member of the new super team as well.
“Couple meat heads getting ready to DOMINATE!!!!! @gronk Well just one meat head!!!! Rob u said if u come back I come back @tombrady get Bruce on the phone, who’s the long snapper?”
Ninkovich appeared on “NFL Live” minutes after word broke of the trade to reveal he got a feeling the tight end had something up his sleeve when the two last talked.
“I was over at his house the other day, 6 feet apart, I went over and got a pair of dumbbells to do a workout and he said something strange to me,” Ninkovich said on the program. “He said, ‘Hey, look Ninko if I ever come back are you gonna come back?’ And I was like ‘No, I’m 36. What does that mean? You got a twinkle in your eye? What’s going on?’”
“So, it’s very, very interesting that they have traded his rights over to Tampa Bay. It’s crazy so … he did say he would not catch another football from another quarterback. So, he’s gonna catch a football from Tom Brady. It seems like it’s a match made in heaven, right? He was probably a little bit bored so why not?”
The 36-year-old earned 460 tackles, 46 sacks, and 88 QB Hits in 131 games.