Growing Up Gronk: A Family’s Story of Raising Champions – How One Father Coached Five Sons to Professional Football

by Gordon Gronkowski, Jeff Schober (Contributor)

Huge boys, huge dreams, huge success—how one family from Buffalo put five boys on the track to realizing their athletic potential and making it “big.”

It is so statistically unlikely as to be almost unbelievable. Somehow, the Gronkowski family has produced three sons who play in the NFL (Rob, Chris, and Dan), one who was drafted into Major League Baseball (Gordie Jr.), and another who is the starting fullback for Kansas State (Goose). Their father, Gordy, even played college football for Syracuse.

How did it happen? From an early age, Gordy realized the potential his sons had and worked with them to make the most of it. Beyond their monstrous size, physicality, and raw talent, he instilled in them a commitment to fitness, health, drive, and determination that would give his boys a leg up in ways other families simply couldn’t match. And the boys’ motivation certainly wasn’t something solely triggered by a driven father. They were like a pack of adolescent wolves readying themselves for the recruiting hunt. Still, all were honor-roll students; the three oldest earned college degrees. Each was motivated and inspired by his brothers. Competition and bragging rights were—and continue to be—a big part of what makes the Gronkowskis tick.

Growing Up Gronk reveals the secrets to the Gronkowskis’ astonishing collective success while opening the door to a lively, entertaining, one-of-a-kind household.

Genres: Sports

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 2014

About the author

The Gronkowski Family includes father, Gordy Gronkowski, president of G&G Fitness, and his sons: Gordie, Jr., a pro baseball player; "Goose," who is in Division 1 football; and NFL players Dan, Chris, and Rob, star tight end of the New England Patriots.

Reviews

[Timothy Bott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contained everything that I could have expected from it. It was written in a way that made it seem as if you were having an interview with almost every member of the Gronkowski family and every possible thing you could want to know was fashioned into a story for readers to enjoy that spanned across their whole life. Many other people were quoted in the book that were close to the Gronkowski boys which adds to the great amount of information on their journey to success and all the other interesting details inbetween that they experienced. It was so fun to read and this made it easy to just read on nonstop if you felt like it. This book would be a great read for all males ages 10 and up who enjoy the sport of football, and I don't believe anybody else would really get as much enjoyment out of this book.

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally an easy day at work. A day where I could sit at a desk and leave the students to do busy work. I can’t just sit so I took the opportunity to read although I wasn’t prepared for it, and even if I was prepared, the book I currently just wrapped up is not appropriate for teaching elementary school (see next review). Luckily the classroom shelf has plenty of books so I found this one. I’m not exactly shy about my love of one TB12 so a book about his running mate Gronk geared toward a young adult audience was just what I was looking for to get through an easy day at work. This book isn’t just about Gronk but about him and his four brothers when they were were growing up and the values their parents put in place to allow them to pursue careers as professional athletes. The Gronk spikes, Gronk craziness, Gronk beach parties and cruises, those would come later. The Tommy and Gronky show good for laughs filmed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for their YouTube channel, not even a blip on the radar. Had these anecdotes been in place, I might not have even chosen this book off the shelf because I am not a fan of critiques of my favorite teams, even ones written by the key players. Papa and Mama Gronk created a strong family infrastructure and should be proud of their sons. Likewise one should look to them as examples of loving parents who allowed their children to achieve their dreams while still exhibiting strong parenting skills. The fact that one of those sons grew up to be a lovable and integral part of four Super Bowl championships is an added bonus. Now future generations of students will get to experience Gronk being Gronk, and I’ll have to find a new book to read at work.

4 stars

[Sue Boros · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why not read about goofy brothers that play professional sports? There's plenty of testosterone to go around. Their father, a college and USFL player himself, raised five sons. He coached their sports teams, designed their training regimen and cultivated plans for their futures. It was a quick read.

[Jaden · Rating 3 out of 5]

It good, just repetitive.

[Lenny D · Rating 2 out of 5]

My sister gave me Growing up Gronk for Christmas for some reason. A joke I think? Anyway I read it in one hungover day at my friends' apartment with the help of a good amount of skimming. It's surprisingly mature, as in, not written in dumbed-down language for sixth graders. It's not complex by any stretch, but the book gets across the important lesson of the Gronkowskis: god-given talent alone doesn't amount to anything if you don't play the game right.

Partly that game includes hard work and pushing yourself and all the motivational poster stuff. The boys are exemplars of that work ethic. But the game also includes knowing how to groom your kid for stardom by having him compete against the right competition, putting him through the right workouts, getting him in from of the right people. Seems like it wasn't a coincidence that the fourth out of five kids was the one who ended up being a superstar. It's because the family had to learn how to play the game. For example, Rob was the only brother who moved to a more competitive state to spur his technical development; in his case, his blocking as a tight end. (This extraordinarily Gronk-authorized book definitely protests too much that this is exactly what the family didn't do with Rob, but, come on.) Whereas his oldest brother fucked up his back working out too hard after an injury, Rob and his family knew that he actually had to take his full junior year off to let his surgery heal. They simply get smarter about how to cultivate an athlete, and better results followed. To be clear, the book states that Rob was probably the most physically talented of the bunch. But in keeping with the central theme of this book — that talent is never enough — it seems like my point is thus reinforced.

[Brady Fye · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's very unlikely but, the Gronkowski family has produced three sons who play in the NFL. Along with that, their father played college football, other brother played in the MLB and their youngest brother is soon to play in the NFL after finishing college at Kansas state. The book Growing Up Gronk tells the story of the Gronkowskis' childhood. MY favorite part in the book is when I learned that Rob, one of the moe athletic of the brothers, always got picked on. Gordy,their dad realized their potential from an early age and instilled health, fitness, and the importance of determination upon them to give them an edge over most others in their athletic careers. While the Gronkowski brothers mom took care of the academic side of raising them, Gordy took care of the physical sports side and made a home gym out of there basement and coordinated a daily physical routine ther barely ever stopped. Their father definitley influenced them to go on to pursue their athletic careers. This book is a good read for anyone who has a passion for sports.

[Vince · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Growing Up Gronk by Gordon Gronkowski. It is a very good book about 5 boys who all grew up in the same house. It is so stastiticly unlikely the 3 boys from the same family would all play in the NFL. It tells you how much you have to work to achieve so much. My favorite part was when Rob broke a watermelon over his head and the press captured a photo of him but never published it because they couldn't find a story for it. I would recomend to all people wheather you like sports or not it is a great book.

[Mrs. Svirsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the Gronkowski family producing so many professional athletes. Reading the story of the hard work and dedication that got them to the pros was interesting and a great message for kids. Little tidbits of the kids lives growing up was fun to read.

[Carol Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would recommend this to my students, hoping they would take away the very clear message that nothing comes without hard work and discipline.

[Guillermo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining book that describes how the Gronkosski boys were raised. Fun stories and a behind the scenes insight regarding the upbringings of 5 dedicated, successful and talented sportsment.