Rob Gronkowski Spent Election Day at New Hampshire Polls. Now He's Explaining Why
Gronk, Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather turned up at polling places in a reported Turning Point get-out-the-vote push. Gronk says he wasn't with them.
By the Heckle Desk · · 2 min read
On Tuesday, Nov. 3, Rob Gronkowski turned up at a polling place in Bedford, N.H., where he talked with Gov. Kelly Ayotte, and later in Goffstown alongside a Republican candidate for state representative. He was not alone. WMUR reported that the traveling show included Danny Amendola, Kevin Youkilis, Floyd Mayweather and Mike Tyson, and reports said the celebrities were appearing outside polls across the state as part of a get-out-the-vote effort by Turning Point Action, the conservative group.
That's quite a lineup to see on the way into the booth. You go to vote for the school board and Mike Tyson is standing by the bake sale. I don't know what that does to turnout, but it would certainly make me vote faster. A man doesn't linger over the county commissioner race when the former heavyweight champion of the world is waiting outside to ask how it went.
Then the videos went around, and by Wednesday Gronkowski was on Instagram saying the pictures were being misread and that he and his partner, Camille Kostek, are not endorsed by or affiliated with the group. He called the reaction upsetting and eye opening, and told reporters at the polls that his message was simply to get out and vote.
I believe him, in the way you believe a man who says he only went into the casino to use the restroom. It's entirely possible. Gronk has spent his retirement showing up wherever there's a crowd, a camera and a reason to spike something, and a polling place in New Hampshire had two of the three. He is the only man in America who could wander into a political operation by accident and stay for the snacks.
There's an old idea that athletes should stay out of politics, and it was always a bit silly, since politics never stays out of the stadium. But there's a newer idea, which is that a celebrity can stand at a polling place next to the governor, under somebody's sign, and be just a fella who likes democracy. That one's harder to sell.
The lesson for Gronk is the one every tight end learns eventually: it doesn't matter what route you meant to run, it matters where the cameras caught you standing. In politics, as in football, nobody remembers your intentions; they only remember the replay.