Alan Truex: Super Bowl and NFL’s future may depend on Gronk and concussion

For all the hype and hyperbole of Belichick/Brady chasing a sixth Lombardi Trophy, the main news story heading into Sunday night’s Super Bowl in Minneapolis is a tight end, New England’s Rob Gronkowski, and his concussion.

The last thing Roger Goodell wants is a nationally televised concussion forum.  But that became inevitable with Gronk’s disturbing and lingering injury suffered in the AFC title game against Jacksonville.

The outcome of Super Bowl 52 (enough with Roman numerals already) may depend on Gronkowski.  He can exploit the one weakness in the Philadelphia Eagles’ defense: coverage of tight ends.  They have given up 73 receptions to them, for 745 yards and 5 touchdowns.

While players are often concussed without a televisible sign of it, there’s no question Gronk’s brain was jarred by the helmet of a Jacksonville safety whose name is tinged with irony: Barry Church.

Gronkowski wobbled for a couple of seconds.  It was the sort of dazing that in earlier decades elicited chuckles and jokes about bells rung and stars flashing, but it’s not funny now that we know about the seriousness of CTE.

No one personifies semi-legal violence like Gronkowski, 6-6, 265 pounds and in his absolute physical prime at age 27.  Many agree with Chris Long that there “has never been a better tight end in the history of the game, because he can block, too.”  Long, who plays for the Eagles, provides insight and perspective as Gronk’s teammate in 2016 and as a son of Hall of Fame defensive end Howie Long.

Mike Ditka, John Mackey and Tony Gonzalez deserve their Cantonizings, but they did not impact games the way Gronk does when healthy.  

And therein is the rub.  Gronk is often MIA.  He’s currently in concussion protocol.  And it’s uncertain he gets out in time to participate in America’s most-watched spectacle of the year.

The Boston Globe quoted Dr. Warren Young of New York’s Hospital of Special Surgery saying that in “most people with concussions, especially if it’s their first-time concussion, symptoms resolve over a course of 7-10 days.”

Alas, this is not Gronk’s first concussion.  He suffered one in December 2013 during the most gruesome collision of his career.  He tore two knee ligaments and also suffered a head-butt on the same play against the Cleveland Browns.  The more concussions a person has, the more problematic the recovery.

Gronkowski has advanced through four of the five stages of protocol.  But the final hurdle is the highest, and Dr. Wood noted that sometimes apparent recovery is interrupted by regression.  Without at least one day of pads-on practice, it’s unlikely Gronk will be cleared two weeks after such an obvious concussion.

Gronkowski is not available for questioning when in the protocol, but he did post an Instagram Monday assuring fans he’s “locked in, ready to roll.”

As much as the NFL wants its most marketable star in its showcase event, the long-term business risk here is enormous.  If Gronk plays and has another concussion, the outcry could be deafening.  

Which begs the question: Why is he so injury-prone?

He’s had a broken forearm (four times), three back surgeries and a knee surgery, along with sprained ankles and stretched hamstrings.  Although he did not provoke the Church attack, Gronk invites injury with his recklessness, unable to control emotions as great athletes are expected to do.

His backstab of a prone rookie cornerback, Buffalo’s Tre’Davious White, was a lowlight of this football season.  A season that very literally turned off millions with its visuals of twitching or inert athletes.  There was nothing more annoying than refs, medical staffs and coaches flummoxed over how to respond.

To those of us in America who still believe in science, neurology seems like a very inexact science, though not as unfathomable as what constitutes a catch.  Which leads to another unsettling question:  Do we allow our children to play such an apparently dangerous game with such ambiguous rules?

Gronk is the icon of this increasingly controversial sport, being its greatest player and one of its most vulnerable.  His contributions on the field are so immense that he has more latitude for off-the-field conduct than other Patriots might.

Fortunately for Gronk, his position on this team has had a low bar for acceptable behavior ever since Aaron Hernandez murdered Olin Lloyd five years ago.  

Bill Belichick, being Bill Belichick, never expressed much remorse for his role in that tragedy.  He had ignored red flags waving in Miami, where Hernandez was known by all NFL teams, including New England’s, to be a troubled youth.  Too much bar time with sketchy people, the scouting reports said.

Belichick was blinded by the athleticism of Hernandez, looked away from his darker side, and brought him back to New England (he was born in Connecticut).  Hernandez was exactly the baller Belichick envisioned: Pro Bowl, Super Bowl.  He formed a tight-end tandem with Gronk that stomped on defenses.  But you won’t hear Belichick saying, “You’re welcome, New England.”

Belichick being Belichick learned from his mistake.  Character is now the most important attribute of all Patriots.  The current roster is loaded with captains of college teams.  When the Patriots’ star pass rusher, Chandler Jones, showed up at a police station shirtless and high from synthetic, though legal, marijuana, he was finished in Foxborough.  He’s now a star in Arizona.

I can’t imagine Belichick smiling about Gronk’s six-figure bar bills and frequent jaunts to Las Vegas.  I can’t imagine Belichick smiling.   At least I couldn’t prior to Monday’s Opening Night, when he was as genial as John Madden.  I could not detect a negative vibe at Xcel Energy Center.  It was as if the building was pumped full of nitrous oxide.  Questions about haircuts, music and hats.  I didn’t hear any about concussions or other injuries.  Or misbehaviors.

Low bar, or others, Gronk is far from the worst of role models, but he’s no Man of the Year nominee.  Don’t expect mature leadership here.  He did not try to deter Johnny Manziel from careening off the rails.  And I’m guessing Gronk hasn’t read Tom Brady’s $200 book about training regimens and the virtues of drinking water.

And speaking again of Brady, he also contributes, however unwittingly, to the concussion debate.  His wife, supermodel Gisele, has become increasingly talky about her husband’s concussions and health risks.  Does he want to end up like Ken Stabler in his sixties with stage 3 CTE?

This Super Bowl brings more scrutiny than Commissioner Goodell has ever faced, and he’s faced his share.  He can’t be comparing concussion risk to sitting on a couch, as he has in the past.  This issue isn’t going away, and his job requires him to deal with it.  Whatever he does or doesn’t do, he can’t let Rob Gronkowski become the poster boy for concussion.