(Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
Few players have dominated the NFL as much as Rob Gronkowski, the future Hall of Fame Tight End for the New England Patriots. What’s even better for Gronk’s bank account is that while he’s putting up insane numbers on the field, he’s one of the most marketable personalities off the field. His performance both on and off the fields mean that he rakes in a ton of cash on endorsements.
And here’s the best part: he’s saving all of the money he makes in the NFL. All of it. And instead, Gronkowski claims that he only lives off the money he makes on endorsements. So not only is he raking it in, he’s not spending it on dumb stuff that would make him go bankrupt.
So how much exactly is Rob Gronkowski worth? By our estimations, we’ve concluded the following:
Rob Gronkowski Net Worth: $20 Million
Now let’s find out how he made so much cash.
2007-2009
The best way to make a lot of money is to avoid debt. And one of the biggest causes of debt is college–roughly 70% of college graduates owe $30K once they graduate. But Rob Gronkowski was not one of them, because he had been offered 65 free rides to 65 different schools.
Eventually Rob chose to attend the University of Arizona. Here’s a great quote from a Vanity Fair interview as to why he made that decision:
Rob had something like 65 scholarship offers, and I asked, “Where are you going? Syracuse? Ohio State?” He goes, “University of Arizona.” I asked, “Why there?” “Dad, if you ever went to a pool party at Arizona, you’d understand.”
After two years dominating at the University of Arizona, he knew it was time to leave. He had secured himself as a valuable draft pick in the 2010 NFL Draft.
2010-2011
Rob Gronkowski was drafted by the New England Patriots via the Oakland Raiders’ 42 overall pick. That is generally considered the best value pick of the entire NFL Draft.
According to SpoTrac, Gronk’s rookie contract ended up being worth $2,530,000. His signing bonus was $1,760,000 and on top of that he made $770K total as salary for two years, plus a couple hundred thousand dollars as miscellaneous bonuses.
2011-2013
In 2011, the New England Patriots and Rob Gronkowski signed a new contract–one that benefitted both the player and the team. The contract not only paid Rob an amount closer to his actual value, it allowed the Patriots the ability to retain the best Tight End in the game for six more years.
Spotrac has the total value of the new contract at $13,170,000 guaranteed–which is really the most important figure when it comes to getting paid in the NFL. You get that number by adding his $8 million signing bonus to the 2012-2014 salaries (roughly $5 million).
As you can probably tell from the enormous increase in pay that Gronk began receiving, these were the years that people really began taking notice of Rob’s performance on the field. But it was also during this time that he started securing a lot of his endorsements. Obviously they weren’t at the level they would eventually become, but getting checks from companies like Nike is always nice for a third-year player.
Perhaps the biggest jump for Gronk happened in 2012 when he signed a two-year deal with Dunkin Donuts, and also Body Armor sports drink. Not only did he begin getting some endorsement checks from Body Armor, he also started investing his money into the company. Body Armor is now represented by people like Dez Bryant, James Harden, Mike Trout, and many others. We don’t know for certain how much money he’s made through that deal, but it’s probably upwards of a million dollars considering the amount of exposure a brand like that has gotten.
2014
The offseason of 2014 was Rob’s breakout year media-wise. Coming off a tough defeat to the Denver Broncos in the AFL Championship game, it didn’t seem like Gronk was too concerned about people’s opinions–something that gave his personal brand a little bump.
On top of that, his big annual contract money started to come in. In 2013, Gronk made a salary of $630K. In 2014, that number skyrocketed to $3,750,000. But still, he was acting extremely thrifty with his money–saving all of his contract money and deciding to live off of his endorsements. Websites such as BarstoolSports have told stories that Gronk reportedly still ate off of paper plates and owns one suit that he has prepped and dry cleaned on Saturday night before his games.
We’ve already showed you what happened at Ultra Music Festival this past weekend, but (as we’ve been
2015
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
2015 was another big year for Rob Gronkowski. I mean, they’re all big years for you when you’re Gronk–but in 2015 he won his first Super Bowl (there’s a bonus of $90K right there). On top of that, Gronk signed a huge deal with Monster Energy Drink. He still kept his shares in Body Armor sports drink, but was now getting paid by the second-largest energy drink company in the world.
“I feel like this deal was the ultimate deal for me,” Gronkowski said in a statement provided to ESPN.com. “Monster Energy just fits my personality. The brand is great and just like the Monster [brand], I like beautiful girls, too.”
Meanwhile, Rob began working on his book It’s Good To Be Gronk!, published in the summer of 2015. The book would debut at #5 on the New York Times Best Sellers List in the Sports category and would remain on the list until after Christmas.
2016
The legacy (and bank account) of Gronk continued to grow. He was making appearances at tons of award shows, game launches, etc. Additionally, he launched his own flavor of Monster Energy Drink, called “Gronk.”
But perhaps the biggest move he made in 2016 was announcing the development of a new show that he’d host: Crashletes.
“It’s about athletes that didn’t make it pro,” Gronk said in a video posted by ThePostGame website. “We’re showing them fall, wipe out, making jokes about it. We’re just having a blast. We’re having a fun time.” Hosting a show like that can mean serious dollars for an athlete like Rob, especially when/if it gets picked up for multiple seasons.
Gronk also finally created an Instagram account, which should help him not only continue to market himself and his brand, but open up new opportunities to get some extra cash for various social media posts. He actually chose his Instagram page @Gronk to announce the launch of Gronk Fitness, a selection of exercise and workout machines with his name on them.
Gronk’s stock will only continue to rise as he accepts more and more opportunities. His brand is absolutely perfect for any company looking to make a splash in the millennial category. Despite his party boy image, he’s actually squeaky clean