Rob Gronkowski will return for the 2018 season.

Gronkowski considered retirement following the Super Bowl.

Gronkowski will put his off-field pursuits such as wrestling and acting on hold.

Rob Gronkowski left his future in question following Super Bowl LII and a report has surfaced that the New England Patriots tight end seriously considered retirement as far back as last training camp.

Gronkowski, 28, has suffered a myriad of injuries in his career, including a game-ending concussion in the AFC Championship Game earlier this year.

The report also suggests that Gronkowski is tired of the Patriots' approach to the game.

It came as a shock to many that Malcolm Butler didn't log a defensive snap for the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.

Devin McCourty says that Butler's benching, however, didn't come as a surprise to Patriots' players.

"We all knew he wasn't starting all week. That wasn't a secret to the guys on the team," McCourty said.

Bill Belichick said after the Super Bowl that the benching wasn't disciplinary.

"I get why people are fishing. The guy played 98 percent of the plays [in the regular season]. I just hate that for him character-wise going into free agency; it's just not true. As far as I know, and I was there all week, not one time did anything come up," McCourty said.

Two weeks after hinting about possible retirement, Rob Gronkowski has given no indication on what his future holds.

"Weeks before [the AFC Championship game,] Gronkowski was telling people around him the toll on his body was making him lean toward the potential that this was his last season," ESPN reported over the weekend. "This is a very serious thing for Gronkowski at this point. He will certainly continue to contemplate retirement."

ESPN's Jeff Darlington said that the situation isn't "an emotional approach to the loss of the Super Bowl" or "an emotional response to the concussion."

Gronkowski suffered a game-ending concussion four weeks ago against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

When Josh McDaniels went back on an agreement to become the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts to remain with the New England Patriots, one of the reasons given was that he didn't want to uproot his family.

Peter King told Pro Football Talk that the spin wasn't true and that McDaniels felt he'd have a better career going forward if he remained with the Patriots rather than jumping to the Colts.

"This had nothing to do with his family," King said. "It was about the Patriots giving him a better option than Indianapolis."

Tom Brady and Michael Strahan are launching a new sports media startup with filmmaker Gotham Chopra called The Religion of Sports. The venture is seeking $3 million in outside startup funding.

Chopra worked with Brady on the "Tom Vs. Time" series for Facebook.

Brady, Strahan and Chopra, alongside chief executive Ameeth Sankaran, a former investor with a family office out of Texas and longtime friend of Chopra’s, want to create a multi-platform storytelling business that functions like an old-school studio.

The crew first came together around five years ago when Brady met Chopra in Los Angeles.
“I think in our very first meeting, he shared with me the idea of Religion of Sports, and I was hooked immediately!,” Brady wrote in an email. “Over the next few years, Gotham and I continued the conversation and the friendship evolved very naturally from there.”

Lane Johnson took some shots at the New England Patriots during a recent interview, calling the AFC champions a "fear-based organization" where the players don't have fun.

Johnson made his comments to Barstool Sports, several days after the Philadelphia Eagles upset the Patriots in Super Bowl LII.

"I just think that the Patriot Way is a fear-based organization," Johnson said on the Pardon My Take podcast. "Obviously, do they win? Hell yes, they win. They've won for a long time. Do I think people enjoy and can say, 'I had a lot of fun playing there?' No, I don't. That's just the God's honest truth."

Johnson also criticized the Patriots' interactions with the media.

"They're successful, but when they go to interviews, they act like f---ing robots," he said. "Hey, stop being a d---head. We can be cordial for a little bit. You only get to do this job one time, so let's have fun while we're doing it. Not to be reckless, but I'd much rather have fun and win a Super Bowl than be miserable and win five Super Bowls."

Kyle Shanahan initially inquired about the availability of Jimmy Garoppolo in February of 2017. 

“At that time, the only guys we thought were franchise quarterbacks that were being mentioned were Kirk and Jimmy,” Shanahan said. “And I knew Kirk wasn’t going to be a possibility. And I remember asking Bill [Belichick] personally down at the combine about Jimmy, and very quickly he told me that wasn’t a possibility. So we moved on from that. He told me he wasn’t going to trade him.”

Shanahan was shocked when the Patriots approached the 49ers in October if they had interest in trading for Garoppolo.

“We were 0–8. We’d just gotten our asses kicked by Philly," said Shanahan. "I came in on a Monday and that was the last thing I was thinking about. And that ended up popping up. It’s different, because it’s a big deal, we want those draft picks. We know have a ways to go, we want to build this organization the right way. And what worried me was having to decide long-term on a guy in just a few games.”

Shanahan and John Lynch only needed 10 minutes to accept New England's proposal of a second round pick for Garoppolo. 

The 49ers signed Garoppolo to a five-year, $137.5 million contract this offseason.

“Everyone wants to talk the numbers. Man, that’s what quarterbacks cost. I don’t even think about the numbers,” Shanahan said. “I look at everything as, ‘Is this a top guy? Is this a guy that has a chance to be one of the better guys in the league?’ And once you believe that, you do whatever it takes to keep him. And that’s what it takes to keep him.”

The Boston Herald has retracted a story about Tom Brady making contract demands following the new deal signed by Jimmy Garoppolo with the San Francisco 49ers.

A WEEI listener called into the radio station Friday morning saying he had posed as Brady's agent Don Yee to supply false information to a Herald columnist.

Along with retracting the story, the newspaper apologized to Brady, Yee and the Patriots and announced the column has been suspended pending further review.

During a Tuesday meeting with Robert Kraft, Jonathan Kraft and Bill Belichick, the New England Patriots made an aggressive pitch to Josh McDaniels.

Sources say Belichick had particular influence in the meeting. While Belichick didn't try to talk McDaniels out of going to the Colts, he knew his offensive coordinator was having second thoughts.

McDaniels received a significant raise from the Patriots and will also be mentored by Belichick in a more meaningful and holistic way.

After hours of meetings on Tuesday, McDaniels was swayed by the Patriots' pitch. He called Ballard, who was in a draft meeting at Colts headquarters, at 7:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and told him he had changed his mind and was “going in a different direction.”

“He called and said he had bad news for me,” Ballard said. “I said, ‘I just need a yes or no answer. Are you in or out?’ We went around for a minute and he said he’s out and I said. ‘OK, we’re going to move forward. I wish you the best of luck.’”

Ballard was “pissed and angry because he was completely blindsided by the whole thing because the process was at the finish line,” according to a source. 

McDaniels has turned down opportunities in recent years with the Rams, Browns, Falcons and 49ers.

One source said: “He’s always just insisted that everything be right, or he wasn’t going to leave.”