Morning Briefing: Rob Gronkowski could be wrestling with his future

New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski announced his retirement this week, leading some to wonder what is next for the charismatic star. But those who have followed his offseason exploits closely know what the best guess is: pro wrestling.

Gronkowski, sitting ringside at WrestleMania in Orlando, Fla., in 2017, was there to support his close friend, WWE star Mojo Rawley, who was taking part in the Andre the Giant memorial battle royal. Rawley and Jinder Mahal were fighting at ringside right in front of Gronkowski, when Mahal took Gronkowski’s drink and threw it in his face. Gronkowski then attacked Mahal and helped Rawley win the battle royal.

He was so good in his role, people immediately speculated on a WWE future, plus Gronkowski himself talked about it as a possibility.

Betonline released some odds on what Gronkowski would do next, and leading the list at 3-2 was “Fight in WWE.”

But the clincher was Monday, when the dastardly Lio Rush and Bobby Lashley appeared on WWE’s live “Monday Night Raw” TV show. The show was in Boston, and Rush was talking to Lashley’s opponent that night, Finn Balor, when he said, “You should have just quit while you were ahead. You really should have. Now you’re going to be forced to leave the game as a beaten, broken, hot piece of garbage like Rob Gronkowski.”

So, if you watch WrestleMania this year, don’t be surprised if you see Gronkowski get involved in the Lashley-Balor match.

Whoops!

I got an email from the Dodgers on Monday that was all about how fans can buy tickets to sit in the seat in which Kirk Gibson’s iconic Game 1 home run ball landed.

The email led with this:

“I can’t believe what I just saw!” - Vin Scully

Everyone makes mistakes. I’ve made plenty so I usually try to be very forgiving of mistakes. But this is a massive one. Vin Scully never said, “I can’t believe what I just saw” about the Gibson homer. Jack Buck said it, and Buck actually said, “I don’t believe what I just saw.”

All I can say about it is, “I can’t believe what I just read.” After all, if you had what many consider the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time calling your games, you might want to doublecheck to make sure you got one of his most famous calls correct.

And to their credit, the Dodgers quickly issued a correction.

The whole thing reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Abraham Lincoln, who said “Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.”

That’s a little more than I make

Tony Romo is a smash hit as an NFL analyst for CBS. Many NFL fans raved over his ability to accurately predict what was going to happen on the next play, plus he brought a good sense of humor to the game, when most analysts treat it as life or death.

Apparently, Romo has been keeping track of his reviews, because he wants a massive pay raise to remain with CBS after this season.

The Sporting News reports that Romo wants at least $10 million a year to remain with CBS. That would easily outdistance the next highest paid analyst, Troy Aikman, who gets $7.5 million.

Romo currently has a reported three-year, $12-million deal that expires after the upcoming season.