Teenage Rob Gronkowski Intentionally Missed Free Throw with Team at 69 Points

This story reads like satire someone would fabricate about Rob Gronkowski. Since he's Gronk, though, it's actually true.

Days before the injured tight end watches his New England Patriots play in Super Bowl LI, WRPI.com's Mark Dondero peeked back into the vivacious star's teenage years. Think of Gronkowski now. Now imagine a high school version of that person, and it's easy to predict where this is going.

In the school's media guide, Gronk listed his hobbies as "working out, playing sports, chicks." 

His interests seemingly haven't changed.

Those passions intertwined during a basketball game at Williamsville North High School in Williamsville, New York. Head coach Chuck Swierski recalled a tale that was not written by The Onion:

"

So we’re playing a home game and we have 68 points – now it’s not a blowout, but it’s not a particularly close game either. So he [Gronkowski] gets fouled and goes to the free throw line. He hits the first one to get us to 69 and the place goes nuts because he’s playing into it. On his next free throw, he purposely chucks the ball off the backboard and misses so the score would stay at 69 and then runs back on defense pointing at the scoreboard.

"

The hackneyed response to this story would be "Never change, Gronk," but he has already taken that advice to heart.

[WRPI.com]