Rob Gronkowski Reveals A Team Photoshopped Him Into No. 69 Jersey To Try To Get Him To Come Back

It took Rob Gronkowski just three words for a pair of NFL teams to phone him up to see if he wants to make an NFL return... again.

One of those teams went the extra mile and tried to appeal to one of Rob Gronkowski's greatest loves: the number 69.

Nice.

It started on Wednesday when the legendary tight end was bored and decided to tweet those sentiments to his 3.2 million followers.

Maybe Gronk was really just bored. I mean everything starts to slow down between now and the New Year. A lot of people are bored.

But when a guy like him — whose potential return to the gridiron always seems like a bit of a possibility — it raises eyebrows.

Some of those eyebrows belonged to a couple of NFL teams.

Gronkowski hopped on FanDuel TV's Up And Adams and chatted with host Kay Adams about what's happened since he tweeted about his boredom.

"Alright," Gronk said, verbally winding up for the big reveal. "Since the tweet, yes, two teams reached out since the tweet."

Adams asked if Gronk was still in on the number 69, but because Christmas is this weekend, he was asked to Elf it or Shelf it.

As you might expect, he Elfed it. However, he had one more interesting tidbit to offload about it.

A Team Offered To Let Gronkowski Wear No. 69

He revealed that one of the teams that contacted him did more than just call or send a message. They tried to use Gronk's fabled love of that particular number as a siren song to lure him back to the NFL.

One of the teams that wanted me to come back sent me a picture of me in a uniform wearing number 69," he said, which drew a "wow" from Adams. "They told me that I could be number 69."

"This was two days ago," he continued. "If I come back, I could be number 69 and check in eligible every play where the referee would have to go over the microphone and say, 'Number 69 is eligible,' every single play."

It's hard to ignore the excitement in Gronk's voice. The dude sounds very excited about this possibility, but he says it didn't quite seal the deal.

"That almost got me to go back to football."

So, if there's any NFL team in need of a tight end ahead of the playoffs, you'd better make damn sure No. 69 is available.

Rob Gronkowski spent two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but as it turns out they weren't the ones who tried to appeal to his love of the number 69. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

Gronk Wouldn't Say Who Sent Him The Photo, But It Wasn't The Buccaneers

Adams tried to press harder to see if she could get Gronk to spill which team's Photoshopping ability almost got him out of retirement.

"Kudos to the Bucs social media team," Adams said, dangling a carrot. "Because they're great at Making those Photoshops."

"No, no," Gronkowski said. "It wasn't the Buccaneers. I can't tell you."

So while Adams didn't get the answer, she did narrow the field down to 31.

She then credited Gronk with having popularized the recent spate of false retirements sweeping the sports landscape. However, he said he's just going with the flow.

"Actually it's not even me. Wherever I go — I walk into the grocery store — 'When are you coming back, Rob?' It's like, I didn't leave the retirement door open, so now I'm just going along with it."

Gronkowski acknowledged that his fans are the ones who keep that door open.

However, from the sound of it, the prospect of wearing No. 69 and having it announced over the PA, makes that door open just a little bit wider.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle