Former All-Pro NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski made his disapproval of "Baby Gronk" known during a recent appearance on a podcast, expressing discomfort with the social media promotion of 10-year old Madden San Miguel as such. Gronkowski's comments were made at Tight End University in Nashville during an appearance on Will Compton and Taylor Lewan's podcast.
When asked about Baby Gronk by Lewan, Gronkowski let on that one of his brothers had asked him about the child several weeks ago. And in saying so, he shared that the Gronkowski family had been continually pestered by the child's father, Juan San Miguel.
"My brother told me -- I was like 'Yo, did you see Baby Gronk yet?' He goes, 'Did I see him? His dad f--kin' hit me up 500 times already,'" Gronkowski said. "He goes 'Don't do anything with him. The dad is so annoying.' ... It's to the point where it's awkward. It's too far."
Lewan and Compton suggested that Gronkowski is the only one who can put a stop to the promotion of Baby Gronk, which led to Gronkowski joking about levying a Cease and Desist against the boy's father.
Madden San Miguel, an incredibly large elementary schooler who currently has more than 327,000 followers on Instagram and is billed as the next great football prospect, was brought into the spotlight several weeks ago through a promotion with LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne. However, the grandiose promotion of San Miguel by his father has raised major concerns about the profiting from children for the sake of Internet fame in combination with tales of overzealous "Stage Parents."
Some compared the "Baby Gronk" phenomenon to the troubled life of former NFL quarterback Todd Marinovich, who had significant problems with drugs in his adult life after being intensely trained to become a professional athlete by his father. Others, like former NFL player Chris Long, expressed strong reservations about how San Miguel may be affected later in life by his father's actions.
"I have no problem with profiting off the internet, this is what we're all doing. But the difference is we're not using a 10-year-old kid to do it," Long said on his podcast. "You gotta be concerned about the toll this is gonna take on Baby Gronk when he's older."
