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"The NFL season returns Thursday night with the New England Patriots&mdash;who, when we last checked in , had just completed the greatest comeback victory in Super Bowl history and later slogged through a depressing jaunt at the White House&mdash;hosting the Kansas City Chiefs. For fans it will be a welcome reunion with the league's biggest stars. It feels like one in particular, however, tight end Rob Gronkowski, never really went away. The famously party-minded behemoth has been as ubiquitous as ever in the offseason, from starring in commercials, to popping up in the press briefing room with Sean Spicer, to delivering a surprisingly decent statement on the state of racial tension in the country. His latest venture is a series of commercials for Tide Sport PODS , which remind you he still plays football with the tagline, \"Spike the stink!\" I asked the Patriots star about doing laundry and working with Tom Brady's questionable trainer-guru , which he was more than happy to talk about, and how he feels about the president's association with the team, which he was less interested in addressing. Luke O'Neil: Do you actually do your own laundry? Rob Gronkowski: Actually, yeah, I do my own laundry. I mean, as a kid my mom did my laundry, but I do my own definitely. Do you let it build up or stay on top of it? Oh, I let it build up. I wear all my clothes, underwear, socks, and then when I'm on my last shoe I gotta figure out a way to hurry up, organize my laundry, and get it going. And sometimes I overdo it, and I'm rushing around to find an extra pair of socks or underwear, but I definitely build it up. Who came up with \"spike the stink?\" Were you involved with that, or the marketing team? You gotta spike the stink! We kind of came up with it together. Always Gronk spiking, so you want to take those Tide pods, and you want to spike those right into your laundry, man, make everything smell good. I know you're a guy that appreciates a good double entendre. That term has kind of a double meaning, doesn't it? Yes it does. It sure does. You gotta spike that stink as soon as possible, man. You got double spikes. You got one in the end zone, you get off the field, you start spiking that stink with the pods. You do a lot of endorsements. Is any of that related to your injury history&mdash;trying to set yourself up in case something bad happens? No, not at all. I don't think that has a connection at all. I just love business. I love doing business-type stuff. My family has big business background, and I like to stay busy too. In the off season, you work out for two hours a day and then you got all this other time off. I like doing other stuff. Football obviously isn't going to last a lifetime either, so it's always cool to get in front of a camera, do commercials, and do endorsements for products that you love. Do you guys talk about the toll the game takes on your body, and how some players seem to be retiring earlier? Oh yeah. I'm pretty sure it's something every athlete thinks about, especially in the game of football for sure. All the hitting and grinding every single day definitely take a toll. It's a full-time job, especially when you're not in your young 20s anymore. You gotta take care of you body, get the right treatment, eat right so you're ready to go the next day. You've started working with Brady's guy, Alex Guerrero. How did that come about? Just seeing Tom, where he's at. He's 40 years old&mdash;to see the way he operates, the way he moves, the shape he's in, how he's playing. Obviously he's doing something right. You look up to guys who have been through the whole process, that have seen everything and are still going strong. You want to see what they did, and take some of his game, some of his work ethic, some of his workouts and eating programs, you want to establish it with yours. Definitely doing his type of exercises and treatments have helped out big time. Guerrero has been somewhat controversial. Were you skeptical at all going into it? Not skeptical at all. Brady's been working with him for many many years. Great guy and get you right. What about the loss of Julian Edelman? I know you all say, \"Next man up,\" but that has to be disappointing. He's not a player you can replace. His work ethic is second to none, the way he plays the game of football is unbelievable. You just can't replace him. Other guys, including myself, are going to have to step up and take some of his role on. How did you end up on stage with Paul McCartney ? A couple of friends know him, they're related to him through marriage, and he was playing in Boston. My friends brought the opportunity to me, how can you pass up on that? It seems like you like to get up on stage. Did you ever have any aspirations to be in a band or a rapper or anything? I mean, who wouldn't want to be, but I don't got those type of skill sets. Sometimes I do it messing around the house for fun, but it's funny because it's not that good. But it's definitely super cool to go up on there and see what that life is. Everyone* at Esquire loves the show Ballers . You ever going to go on? I've seen it before, definitely a good show. The Rock does a great job. It's a cool show, entertaining. I don't know. Possibly could be on it in the future, but as of right now we're in the season so we'll see what happens in the offseason. What about Game of Thrones? Seems like you could make a good guy swinging an axe. I actually just started. I hear everyone talking about. I don't really watch that much TV. I just watched the first episodes, and it's definitely a really pretty good show. Whenever I get a chance I'm gonna put the show on, but I don't know much about it yet. You made some cool comments recently about racial tensions in the country. What prompted you to speak up about that? One of my good friends was in town, who I did the interview with. With everything going on, and being football season, I felt like it was a good time to talk about. With football season starting next week, I feel like athletes and sporting events can bring everyone together. Tell me about the White House visit. It was pretty funny when you popped into the press room. How did that come together? We were there. Their family asked if I could pop in the press conference. Our media staff was down with it. I just popped in. I went like through like two doors to get to the door, a couple security people, but I mean, just popped in. Asked if you need some help. Just to get the gig going a little bit. It was funny. I didn't know how big it was. I didn't know what I was walking into. I just thought it was a little media building. When I opened up the door I saw like 150 press people, the biggest press people in the world, I was like, \"Oh, I know what this is.\" Caught me off guard a little. Did you get a chance to interact with the president? What did he say? Uh, yes. Everyone has the opportunity that was on the trip. Just congratulations to the whole team basically. Just a smooth trip overall, the travel, walking around the White House. Super smooth, easy trip that we got congratulated on as a team. The president has become associated with the Patriots. A lot of people have been turned off by that. Do you have an opinion? We're just focused on the season. We got a lot of fans. We just gotta be prepared. Big game coming up next week. We love our fans, man. We take on all fans. So you don't think there's anything wrong with the president being associated with the team when he's such a virulent racist and xenopho&mdash; And on that note, Gronk was done taking questions for the day. *Editor's note: Exactly one person at Esquire loves Ballers ."
<https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a57335/gronk-white-house-trump-interview/>