Sunday was a very emotional day for New England Patriots fans. Not only did they watch their team’s hopes at an undefeated season get dashed with an overtime loss to the Denver Broncos, they also saw their prized tight end Rob Gronkowski go down with what appeared to be an extremely painful knee injury.
Rob Gronkowski's knee was injured on this play. #NEvsDEN https://t.co/cpKJs6qGJB
— NFL (@NFL) November 30, 2015
The Patriots’ offense is already depleted — with top targets Dion Lewis, Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola all currently out of the lineup — and Gronkowski has had plenty of issues with serious injuries to his joints in the past, so it’s understandable that New England fans would be extremely nervous about Gronk’s status, especially considering how significant it looked immediately afterwards. Injuries that require players to be carted off the field don’t typically end well.
Not all that surprisingly, concerned fans helped start the hashtag #PrayForGronk on social media in the immediate aftermath of the knee injury, and things got very interesting.
https://twitter.com/Rebel07TE/status/671187565358137344
https://twitter.com/JeffLaRochelle/status/671195430802300928
It's times like these when you wish Aaron Hernandez wasn't in prison for the rest of his life #PrayForGronk
— Michael Gurska (@M_Gurska12) November 30, 2015
https://twitter.com/hjthrash/status/671185453278756864
https://twitter.com/smashalee87/status/671321291740188672
https://twitter.com/Juan__Henao/status/671186855401029633
https://twitter.com/mUdi23_/status/671185569351909376
https://twitter.com/r_uMAD_SON/status/671185113393274880
https://twitter.com/TheTylerJM/status/671184744139399168
Well. You might as well just shoot our team in the head and be done with it. #prayforgronk #goodbyesuperbowl
— Jim Redding (@jimredding) November 30, 2015
I have no doubts that the hashtag was well-intended, but it came off looking slightly hilarious when Patriots fans got good news Monday morning with the update that Gronk may not even miss a game.
Sounds like #Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski (knee) is unlikely to miss more than one game, I'm told. In fact, he may not even miss that.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 30, 2015
Great job, everyone! Looks like those prayers worked.
