Rob Gronkowski Gets Pranked On Camera in Segment About a Fictional NFL Player: 'You Guys Had My Head Spinning'

The retired tight end had to quickly improvise when his Fox Sports co-hosts asked him about an NFL player who doesn't exist

Rob Gronkowski was quick on his feet when his Fox Sports colleagues pulled an epic prank on the former NFL star.

Gronkowski, 35, was the subject of a hilarious prank in which his Fox NFL Sunday co-hosts Jay Glazer, Terry Bradshaw, Michael Strahan, Howie Long and Curt Menefee threw him into a segment about a fictional Dallas Cowboys player.

"He thought we were going live with an extra segment," Glazer said to viewers before footage of Gronkowski's prank played. "Everybody at Fox knows this is not real, except for Gronk."

He continued, “The premise was, I was going to ‘break news’ that the Cowboys were activating this great Pro Bowl tight end who doesn’t exist and Gronk has to go on what he thinks is live TV to talk about this tight end.”

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The broadcasters began their prank on the former tight end by discussing some "breaking news" out of Dallas that Rich Russo — a fictional player — would be active for the next Cowboys game.

Gronkowski looked confused as his co-hosts began discussing Russo's style of play and their predictions for his fictional return to the field.

When Gronkowski was asked to chime in on the conversation, he was quick on his feet in adding some commentary about Russo potentially being "a little rusty coming back" after being injured.

The prank went on until Bradshaw told Gronkowski that Russo was missing "two fingers on his right hand," to which the former Patriots tight end said: “So is that going to affect him when he’s catching a pass?”

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Gronk then added, "I still have all five of my fingers," which prompted his co-hosts to burst into laughter and remind the former NFL star he has ten fingers in total.

Menefee came clean to Gronkowski after.

"This is a joke. Rich Russo doesn't play for the Dallas Cowboys," he said, much to Gronkowski's surprise and relief.

"I was wondering! I was going to say, right when it was done, ‘Guys, I’ve never heard of Rich Russo in my life,'" Gronkowski told his co-hosts, adding, "You guys had my head spinning, that's for sure."

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The Fox Sports crew showed Gronkowski footage of the prank in a later segment, which the retired player said he was "so excited" to see.

"I've learned two things from it — that I am a funny guy," Gronkowski said. "Number two is that I’m always ready," he added of his ability to quickly pretend like he had heard of Russo while the cameras were rolling.

Gronkowski first joined the Fox broadcast crew in 2019 after retiring from the NFL. He's become a fan-favorite addition to the network's commentary team, which also recently added Gronkowski's former teammate Tom Brady.

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