Former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski became emotional Tuesday morning when detailing his reasons for retiring from the NFL at age 29.
Gronkowski, who was speaking at an event in New York City to announce his new partnership with the CBD company, CBDMedic, fought back tears as he decribed the pain of a quad injury he sustained during his final season with the Patriots on their run to winning Super Bowl LIII.
MORE: Andrew Luck's retirement made sense. The Colts' confusion around his injuries didn't
"I want to be clear to my fans. I needed to recover. I was not in a good place. Football was bringing me down, and I didn't like it. I was losing that joy in life," Gronkowski said.
"I got done with the game and I could barely walk," he continued. "I slept five minutes that night. I couldn't even think. I was in tears in my bed after a Super Bowl victory. It didn't make that much sense to me. And then, for four weeks, I couldn't even sleep for more than 20 minutes a night. I was like, 'Damn, this sucks.' It didn't feel good."
Do you see tears? @RobGronkowski gets emotional discussing his decision to retire so he could physically recover. He's not ruling out a future return to the @nfl, but also not making it seem likely. https://t.co/uYEfOwuTXe pic.twitter.com/nuRGca2a54
— WCVB-TV Boston (@WCVB) August 27, 2019
Gronkowski's comments come just days after fellow 29-year-old Andrew Luck shocked the world and retired from the NFL, citing similar struggles with the difficulties of overcoming repeated injuries.
CBDMEDIC makes topical products for “safe, natural, and temporary relief,” according to the company’s website. Cannabis of any kind, including CBD, is banned in the NFL despite several forms of CBD becoming federally legalized.
Gronkowski said that since his retirement in March, he is "very satisfied with where I am in life now."
Since his retirement, Patriots fans have continued to speculate when, not whether, the former tight end will return to the team. While Gronkowski doesn't have plans to return in the "forseeable" future, he also didn't exactly close the door.
"Physically, I could play right now," Gronkowski said, but added he is not quite mentally there yet.