Introduction to Baby Gronk
Who is Baby Gronk?
“Baby Gronk” is a moniker given to a young athlete whose real name has become secondary to his growing legend. Inspired by the iconic NFL player Rob Gronkowski, Baby Gronk’s identity is deeply intertwined with his athletic prowess, particularly in football. He represents a new wave of youth sports influencers, where talent is nurtured and showcased online, attracting a massive following even before reaching adolescence.
Origin of the Nickname
The nickname “Baby Gronk” is a direct reference to Rob Gronkowski, one of the most dominant tight ends in NFL history. Gronkowski’s imposing physicality and unmatched skills on the football field earned him the nickname “Gronk.” As Baby Gronk began to display similar traits—both in build and talent—the nickname was naturally adopted by fans and media. It signifies not only a physical resemblance but also an expectation of future greatness in the same sport.
The risk, for recruiting sites, of covering Baby Gronk at all
In running their Q&A with San Miguel, the Athletic provided a case study in the downside risk associated with covering Baby Gronk at all – especially for outlets holding themselves out as reliable reporters of recruiting information. My read on what went wrong with the Q&A is that Ari Wasserman and his editors clearly saw through San Miguel’s grift (namely, creating the deliberately false impression that San Miguel was being aggressively courted by elite college football programs, rather than merely attending camps open to any member of the public who is willing to pay) but nevertheless saw an opportunity to latch on to a trending topic and, perhaps, to siphon off some of the search and social traffic it was generating.
Wasserman thought the skeptical tone of his questions would be sufficient to help readers see what he saw: that San Miguel was running a con. But the subtext wasn’t loud enough, the message got muddled, and the net result was the Athletic giving San Miguel a bigger microphone to tell his lie.
In the past, other outlets might have fallen into a similar trap. In the mid-2010s, 247Sports was running what some have called a business in the front, party in the back strategy: presenting its buttoned-down recruiting coverage to its hardcore, ultra-niche message board audience, while catering to a broader audience through Facebook and search. While that ethos lives on to some degree in the operation Shannon Terry now runs at On3 (the employee who wrote On3’s Baby Gronk story recently published a story summarizing a Conor McGregor Instagram post), 247Sports has been given explicit instructions from parent company CBS Sports to, as one 247 employee told me, “stay in our lane.”
Translation: stick to recruiting, and stay away from viral news.
This tracks with a broader trend in the media industry, amid the collapse of viral news traffic and the fracturing of social media. Readers are turning away from giant media companies that cover everything at the surface level and turning toward smaller, more trusted voices that cover a smaller range of topics more deeply. Six years ago this month, the 247Sports Twitter feed that I helped program would be filled with stories about the NBA Finals and Baby Gronk, whereas in June 2023 it’s just coverage of Elite 11 and the Transfer Portal.
Part of what’s strange about the Baby Gronk story is the way it feels caught between two different eras of the internet. On the one hand, it’s a story designed to exploit the disinformation vulnerabilities of social news coverage during Web 2.0. On the other hand, it looks forward to a future when NIL takes up evermore space in college football news.
At the time of the Blake Carringer hoax, the player’s fake Twitter profile was not an end in itself. There was no profit motive for the perpetrator. All they wanted to do, as far as anyone can tell, is make a point about how easy it would be to make a three-star recruit out of thin air. Success or failure was contingent upon Rivals, 247Sports, or ESPN taking the bait.
But even without successfully duping the recruiting industry, Jake San Miguel appears to have won – that is, if his claims of $100,000 in annual sponsorship revenue are to be believed. And this may point the way forward for imitators who aren’t quite so obviously running a con.
One might have thought that NIL value was downstream of actual, on-the-field value to college football programs. But what Baby Gronk demonstrates is that there isn’t a 1:1 relationship between those propositions, and maybe indeed no relationship at all. In this case, the antibodies the recruiting industry has developed against these stories could prove to be totally useless. Because, as it turns out, it’s possible to game Instagram’s algorithm without the help of the recruiting media.
Awful Announcing reached out to On3 to ask if they were worried that, by adding Baby Gronk to their player database, they risked damaging their reputation as a reliable source of recruiting news. As of this writing, On3 has not returned our request for comment.
The role of Baby Gronk’s parents cannot be overstated. They have been actively involved in every aspect of his athletic journey, from training to managing his public image. Their influence extends beyond just providing support—they are key decision-makers in his career, often dictating the pace and direction of his progress.
Parental Involvement in Sports Development
Parental involvement in Baby Gronk’s sports development is a common thread among young athletes who achieve early success. For Baby Gronk, this involvement includes everything from selecting coaches to managing his diet and fitness routines. The level of commitment required from parents in these situations is substantial, often involving significant time, financial investment, and emotional energy.
Conclusion
As a young sports influencer, Baby Gronk’s public image is carefully curated, largely under the guidance of his parents. This involves decisions about which content to post, how to engage with followers, and how to handle media inquiries. The goal is to build a positive, marketable image that aligns with his athletic aspirations while also protecting his privacy and well-being.
