Gronk, Devin McCourty talk possible retirement

Photo by John Bazemore

The word retirement goes with Rob Gronkowski like milk and cereal.

"As of right now, those are the last things I'm thinking of. ... I love playing the game. After a long season, after the [Super Bowl], a few weeks down the road, you sit back, you relax, you get some downtime, enjoyment time. And you just see where you want to go with it.''

Gronk went on to say that roughly two weeks after the Super Bowl, he'll start to think about his future. It didn't help that the big tight end's 47 catches for 682 yards and three touchdowns fueled speculation that this would be his last year, but he says he feels good and he thinks he can keep going.

"How many more years my body could take? In my opinion? That's a good question. Many,'' he said. "Many, many, many, many years. ... There is no number. As much years as I want to go. Yeah, I feel good. But, I mean, if you just work hard enough through the work days, you can keep going.''

And while Gronk's potential retirement isn't much of a surprise, there is another notable Patriot who brought up retirement should his team win on Sunday - Devin McCourty.

The longtime Patriots safety says winning the Super Bowl with his brother Jason is essentially the last thing he wants to accomplish, and that he isn't sure what there is to do beyond that.

NBC Sports Boston:

“I don’t know for sure,” McCourty said. “I do look at it if we can win this game, win it with my brother, I don’t know what else I could do that would top that. I’m just trying to make sure I enjoy this season and enjoy these last couple of days with these guys.”

Like Gronk, losing Devin would be a big blow to the Pats' future. But that's not something anyone has to worry about yet.

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