Rob Gronkowski’s Business Empire Beyond Football

November 16, 2025

Welcome to Gridiron Wallet — where NFL players don’t just chase rings, they chase bags. From million-dollar grills to side hustles that slap, we’re decoding how football’s finest make it, spend it, and sometimes… fumble it. 🏈🔥

The latest edition of our newsletter covers Rob Gronkowski:

  • Health & Wellness: The Gronk Fitness Empire

  • Lifestyle & Food Ventures: From Gronk Nation to Greenlane

  • Gronk’s Long Game in Digital & Financial Investments

✍️Paper Play

Health & Wellness: The Gronk Fitness Empire

There is a certain archetype that many, especially people who don’t like or follow sports, think of when they picture football players: The dumb meathead jock who just likes to hit things on the field and crush beers off it. 

Well, future Hall of Fame tight end Rob Gronkowski heavily leaned into that image while he was in the NFL. However, like with most people, there is more to Gronk than what meets the eye. 

While Gronkowski certainly loved to hit things on the field and crush beers whenever it was appropriate, he is far from dumb. In fact, he has proven to be quite adept in starting businesses, investing, and marketing himself. 

The former Patriot has built a little empire for himself. It began with his natural evolution from professional athlete to proprietor of businesses centered on health and wellness.

One of his first forays into business was to join a venture alongside his family that focused on lifting weights. The Gronkowskis sure love their weights. Gronk and three of his brothers played in the NFL, and the fifth brother looks like he’s no stranger to the gym.

And that’s because their father, Gordy Gronkowski’s main business when the kids were growing up, was G&G Fitness. Gordy, the “family patriarch,” founded the company in 1990. Rob has since become a major investor and player in the company that sells high-end commercial and home gym equipment. 

They have supplied fitness equipment and accessories to a variety of businesses, from major gym chains to college programs and luxury buildings, including Boston’s The Parker.

But like we said, Gronkowski isn’t just some meathead weight-lifter. He has also looked into and invested in other sectors of the health and wellness industry, like recovery.

Most notably, in a move that showed Gronkowski’s surprising business acumen and prescience, he became one of the first pro athletes to partner with a CBD (cannabidiol, the non-psychoactive compound in cannabis) company, Abacus Health Products. This was back in 2019 when he was still in the league.

The pact obviously included royalties and marketing schemes centered on the brand recognition, fame, and visibility Gronk already enjoyed. But the big tight end also nabbed a substantial chunk of equity — 302,835 shares plus warrants, to be exact. He was instrumental in advertising their sports recovery line through their CBD Medic brand, aimed at athletes and consumers.

Gronk clearly had a good eye with that one. Just a year after he signed on with Abacus, it was acquired in a major deal by Charlotte’s Web, the “largest vertically integrated hemp-derived CBD company” in America, according to their website. 

With fitness and wellness covered, what will Rob Gronkowski get into next?

💸 Future Proof

Lifestyle & Food Ventures: From Gronk Nation to Greenlane

Gronkowski has taken on other business opportunities and initiatives after retirement, in addition to health-centric ventures. 

The former Patriots star’s main focus has been the Gronk Nation Youth Foundation. Through the charity, he and his brothers, Dan, Glenn, Chris, and Gordie, sell apparel and athletic wear that has extended Rob’s image into the clothing space. A significant portion of the profits goes back into his foundation.

Gronkowski also hosts events through his foundation. Gronk Nation is an official sponsor of the Boston Marathon. Recently, he organized the Fallmouth Road Race, an event focused on raising money for the foundation.

Funnily enough, piggybacking off his ‘life of the party’ persona from his NFL days, Gronkowski became a sponsor of a party bus back in 2016. The Official Gronk Bus soon became the company name. It served as his entertainment wing, managing appearances, sponsorships, and of course, the iconic ‘Gronk Bus.’

Gronkowski has also become an investor in the Greenlane Restaurant chain. It’s a fast-casual salad and wrap drive-thru concept based in Florida. The former TE serves as both a business partner and a brand ambassador, occasionally appearing in events at new locations. 

Back in 2023, after pickleball’s popularity spiked, Gronkowski decided to invest in the Crush Yard Pickleback Club & Restaurant. He joined several other NFL investors in it. The venture combines dining and pickleball into a single experience and is rapidly expanding across the United States.

We also can’t forget how, back in 2015, Gronkowski partnered with PLB Sports & Entertainment to create his own line of hot sauces, which was only sold in New England stores. But they did well, and most of the proceeds went to the Gronk Nation Youth Foundation.

Even though he may not seem like the brightest bulb, Gronk has a ton of business ventures in his portfolio. They’ve helped him stay financially prosperous, with a net worth of $45 million. 

💡 Gridiron Wallet Trivia

Did you know?
🌿 Rob Gronkowski reportedly never spent a dime of his $54 million in NFL salary, instead living entirely off his endorsement income from brands like Nike, Dunkin’, and Tide. Gronk called it a rule to “save my signing bonus, spend the marketing money”—a rare financial strategy that helped him build long-term wealth while living like a superstar.

🏈 ✨Dream Scheme

Gronk’s Long Game in Digital & Financial Investments

Gronkowski’s financial journey has been built on the same philosophy as his playing style: Equal parts fun, equal parts risk, and a bit of chaos. And nowhere is that clearer than in how Gronk became one of the first professional athletes to jump headfirst into the NFT boom.

Back in 2021, when most athletes were still asking, ‘What even is an NFT?’, Gronkowski had already launched his own “Championship Series” NFT collection. He commissioned hand-drawn artwork with Black Madre and minted the cards directly on the Ethereum blockchain. 

Gronk had a simple reason =to venture into the world of crypto: “I wanted to take the business into my own hands and be the first professional athlete to launch my own NFT collection.”

And as it turned out, the results validated the gamble. His five-card drop — four individual Super Bowl moments and one all-in-one championship piece — generated $1.75 million in sales. The top card alone sold for nearly $433,000, becoming the highest athlete-NFT sale at the time. 

Later, through his partnership with Tom Brady’s Autograph, an NFT marketplace, pieces like the Gronk Emerald Champion Ship are still sold today. It has a valuation as high as $50,000 per collectible, proving the sense in the risk he took back in 2021.

Talking about risk, the adage “fortune favors the brave” might as well be etched on Gronk’s investment portfolio. Long before the crypto boom, the Patriots legend made one of the most unintentionally brilliant financial decisions of his life: A $69,000 investment in Apple stock.

This may have started as a mere recommendation from the contractor building his house, but eventually, the investment turned into one of his biggest wins. Gronk once laughed that he “forgot about it for two and a half years,” only to check back and see the investment had ballooned to around $250,000. Gronk then sold a portion and held the rest, which later climbed toward a whopping $600,000 (as of December 2024). 

On one hand, we regularly hear stories of people losing their money on the stock market, and then there is Gronk, who generated all this wealth from a first-time stock purchase he didn’t fully understand at the time. Beginner’s luck? Maybe. 

But credit also goes to the NFL superstar for his child-like curiosity and instinct that lands him in such favorable situations in the first place. Unsurprisingly, these intangibles continue to define Gronkowski’s post-NFL investment strategy today.

Whether it’s his apparel partnership with BYLT Premium Basics, his role in reshaping college sports monetization through Legacy25, or the charity-driven fan-engagement platform Voomerang, the 4x-Super Bowl champ continues venturing into the unknown, partnering with the brave, the prepared, and the ones willing to play the long game.

📆 NFL Money Stat of the 1950s

In the 1950s, the NFL Championship Game became the league’s top moneymaker, with players on the winning team earning $2,000 bonuses—a massive payday when the average annual salary was around $5,000. The 1958 title game, dubbed “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” drew a record TV audience and helped launch the NFL into national financial prominence.