On Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV. It’s a matchup that many are looking forward to, including Bucs tight end Rob Gronkowski.
In his first season with Tampa, Gronkowski has helped the franchise reach their first Super Bowl since the 2002 campaign.
Despite the excitement the veteran tight end has about facing the defending champion Chiefs this weekend, he recently admitted that the Bucs facing the Buffalo Bills would have made for one of the “craziest,” Super Bowls in NFL history.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end almost got to face his hometown team in the Super Bowl
Before developing into one of the best tight ends the game of football has ever seen, Gronkowski grew up just outside of Buffalo, New York. So, unsurprisingly, he has many friends and family members that are fans of the Bills.
In order to get to this season’s Super Bowl, Kansas City had to get by Buffalo in the AFC Championship. Since Tampa’s NFC Championship victory happened before the AFC title game, Gronkowski said he was repeatedly checking his phone during the matchup to see if his hometown Bills could pull off the win.
During the recent virtual Super Bowl opening night, the Bucs tight end described some of the emotions he was feeling as he was waiting to see which team would represent the AFC in this season’s Super Bowl.
"“For myself, because I’m from Buffalo, I was thinking like, ‘Oh man, if Buffalo beats the Chiefs, I’m gonna be playing my hometown.’While that game was going on, I was just checking the score, I was like, ‘This is just incredible, like, whoever we play, like, it’s just surreal.’ You either play the reigning champs or I’m playing my hometown Buffalo Bills.All my friends were texting me when the playoffs started, ‘Bucs-Bills! Seeing it now! Bucs-Bills!’ every week and every week we won, they won, ‘Bucs-Bills! Bucs-Bills!’ and I was like, ‘That would be like the craziest Super Bowl,’ just for, you know, myself because I’m from Buffalo. [It] would have been nuts.”"
Is anyone surprised that Gronkowski grew up near the team whose fan base has a tradition of jumping through tables? No, absolutely not.
Even though he won’t get to participate in a crazy Super Bowl showdown against the Bills on Sunday, the Tampa tight end should actually be happier with the actual matchup he’ll have with Kansas City.
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The Chiefs defense ranked dead last in the red zone this season, giving up a touchdown to their opponent 76.6 percent of the time. Due to this, one should imagine Gronkowski will have some great opportunities to find the end zone on Sunday.