Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski says younger NFL players should have a backup plan
New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski confirmed Thursday that he has been cleared to play in Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles after suffering from a concussion during an illegal helmet-to-helmet hit during the AFC Championship game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“I’m ready to roll,” Gronkowski said during a press conference with reporters. "I officially got the word today that I was cleared, so it was super nice to hear from the doctors going through the whole process.”
Gronkowski, who has suffered his fair share of injuries throughout his eight seasons playing in the NFL, told FOX Business in November that his biggest advice to younger players is to always have a backup plan.
“Sometimes, I see players come in and they’re all about football and only football and then boom!” Gronkowski said.
The tight end star said the average NFL career is about three and a half years, which is something he watched his brothers, Dan and Chris, both go through, after five and four seasons, respectively.
“It’s always good to go in with another plan [and] to have something behind you [that's] not just football, no matter what level you are,” he said.
That is one of the reasons the Patriots phenom, affectionately known as ‘Gronk’, is getting his feet wet in the startup world, by partnering with serial entrepreneur Jeremy Greene in a new tech hologram app called Mojiit.
“The chemistry that we have is like the chemistry Tom Brady and I have on the field,” Gronkowski added when referring to his relationship with Greene.
Greene, a tech entrepreneur who built and launched the social media app PingTank, and sold it to Facebook in 2015, says he created Mojiit, an app that allows users to create a 3D animation of themselves to send to their friends, because it’s exactly where the industry is headed.
“The idea really speaks for itself and it’s fun,” Greene told FOX Business. “We just closed a sizable round (1.2 million) and we did that in less than a month and a half. I also got Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple involved, which is amazing.”
The app, which is free for users, will get a majority of its revenue from micro purchases.
“If you’re wearing Yeezys in your avatar and I touch them, not only can I buy them from my app but I can also buy them from ecommerce and have them delivered directly to my house. That is where we’re headed. There is a much bigger play here,” Greene said.
Though Gronkowski wouldn’t comment on whether or not he invested in Mojiit, he did say that the idea of investing in companies is something that he feels comfortable with in his career. In his 2015 book, “It’s Good to Be Gronk”, he told readers that he has yet to spend any of the money associated with his NFL contract. Something he says now still holds true in “a way.”