Rob Gronkowski almost found himself in stripes.

Imagine a world where Joe Burrow was throwing touchdown passes to Gronkowski.

That world almost became reality.

Gronkowski shared on his podcast, Dudes on Dudes, with former teammate Julian Edelman, that Burrow reached out to the tight end to come out of retirement and join the Bengals.

However, Gronk thought the number was fake and ghosted Burrow, thus never coming to Cincinnati.

“After I retired, everyone is still trying to get me to play,” Gronkowski said.

“Asking me questions in the media, like ‘Yo, who is the quarterback you would love to play with?’

“I’m like Joe Burrow because he reminds me of Brady and I just love the way that he presents himself in the pocket.

“[That answer] went everywhere.

“So then I get a text message, ‘Yo Gronk, what’s up man? I saw you talking about me in the media, it’s Joe Burrow. I would love for you if you came to the Cincinnati Bengals.’”

Unfortunately for Burrow, and Bengals fans ,Gronkowski didn’t believe it was actually the Cincinnati quarterback.

“I was like, I ain’t getting got again. This is nuts. I ain’t falling for this s*** again.”

Getty

Burrow and Gronkowski, along with Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, would be a nightmare for defenders[/caption]

Gronkwoski shared the time he got duped by a fan pretending to be one of his former teammates on the New England Patriots, Malcom Brown, and swore to never fall for that again.

Except this time, it was actually Burrow.

Edelman asked Gronkowski when he realized it was actually the star quarterback.

The interaction took place at Michael Rubin’s infamous white party over the Fourth of July in the Hamptons.

“I’m at the white party this year, I go up to him, I walk right by him, I’m like, ‘What up Joe? Nice to meet you.’

“And then like within 10 seconds, he’s like, ‘Yo, you never responded to me.’

“I knew exactly what he was talking about and I was like, ‘No frickin way, that that was actually you bro.’

Gronkowski went on to share that he apologized to Burrow and told him how much he loved him.

The future Hall of Fame tight end only ever caught passes from Brady in his career, but it sure would be fun to envision what it would like if he was catching passes from Burrow too.

I guess we’ll never know.