Would it really be the opening of the "Gronk Playground" on Boston’s Esplanade without the eponymous Patriots icon spiking a football at the center of a tightly packed crowd of children, parents, television cameras and local dignitaries?
Could the Gronk Playground truly be considered ready for play until the six-foot-six man of the hour finagled himself to the top of a jungle gym and then flung his hulking frame down a slide built for children, followed closely by Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey?
Most certainly not.
The facility has been a years-long dream for Rob Gronkowski, dating to his recovery from an arm surgery across the street at Massachusetts General Hospital during his football days.
From his window, 22 floors up, Gronk gazed down at the Esplanade’s Charlesbank Playground and pondered a renovated facility for the children of Boston in the park below.
“I had every opportunity to compete growing up as a kid, and I was fortunate to have great people around me, good kids to play with, and places where we could be active all day long,” he said Tuesday morning at a celebratory opening of the playground.
Gronk Playground
The Gronk Playground on the Esplanade in Boston, Aug. 19, 2025.(Will Katcher/MassLive)
The new playground, on a shady corner of the Esplanade between Storrow Drive and the Charles River, was built with the help of nearly $2 million from the Gronk Nation Youth Foundation, as well as funds from the Esplanade Association and the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation.
It was a gift to Boston for “all the love and support the city and New England fans have shown me throughout my career,” Gronkowski said.
Susan Hurley, the founder of CharityTeams, an organization that helps support charity competitors in athletic events, said the Gronk Playground began with a single text from Gronkowski one Sunday night several years ago.
“He said, ‘I have an idea.’ I was like, ‘Uh oh,’” she joked. “Knowing Rob, this could have went in a multitude of directions, but my heart filled when this big kid born near Buffalo — but let’s face it, he’s made in New England — replied that he wanted to build a playground for the children of this incredible region.”
The event turned emotional for Gronkowski as Hurley spoke, recounting her battle with a severe form of cancer. Since May, she has been in the hospital seven times. At Mass. General, she was placed on the same floor of the hospital as Gronk had been while he healed from arm surgery.
“Every single day, I looked down at this playground, wondering if I was going to be here,” Hurley said. “And here I am.”
Gronk Playground
Former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski and Mass. Gov. Maura Healey speak as they enter an event celebrating the opening of the new Gronk Playground on the Esplanade in Boston, Aug. 19, 2025.(Will Katcher/MassLive)
A teary Gronkowski paused several times as he reached the podium, began to speak and thanked Hurley for her work seeing the project to fruition.
The playground was already active, with children testing out the new slides and seesaw, well before Gronkowski, Healey, Patriots owner Robert Kraft and other officials arrived Tuesday morning.
Loudspeakers welcomed people to the grand opening with AC/DC‘s “Thunderstruck” and Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle.” Close your eyes, and you may as well be sitting in the stands in Foxborough on a breezy September Sunday.
With no uncertainty, it is a Boston playground. Many of the features are custom-built to resemble local landmarks. There’s a slide and jungle gym shaped like a duck boat, a rope and trampoline piece built like the Zakim Bridge, and homages to the Boston Marathon, city skyline and the Charles River.
And at the center of it all looms a football-shaped jungle gym and slide, planted into the ground mid-Gronk spike.
With speeches introducing the playground completed and the proper thanks delivered, the fun and antics began.
Gronk Playground
The Gronk Playground on the Esplanade in Boston, Aug. 19, 2025.(Will Katcher/MassLive)
Child after smiling child went down the slide. Gronkowski went down the slide. Healey followed. Gronk spiked a football.
“Too many kids around,” he remarked, before clearing a circle in the crowd for the spike. “It’s dangerous. It’s high voltage.”
The playground’s squishy synthetic flooring absorbed much of the ball’s momentum and sent it safely straight back into Gronkowski’s hand.
Seemingly surprised that the ball hadn’t gone flying, he cleared the circle for another spike. This one careened across the playground. The crowd cheered. Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” blasted from the speaker system.
Gronk Playground
Former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski signs autographs and meets fans after celebrating the opening of the new Gronk Playground on the Esplanade in Boston, Aug. 19, 2025.(Will Katcher/MassLive)
Off to the side, Healey tossed a football with a group of kids, including 11-year-old Christopher Hohn, of Milford.
“She has a really good arm,” he said.
“Better than Brady — just kidding."
Less than two weeks after the Patriots unveiled a 12-foot-tall bronze sculpted statue of Tom Brady outside Gillette Stadium, the opening of Gronkowski’s own monument-of-sorts on the Esplanade was fitting for the famously boisterous former tight end, Healey said.
“That same level of joy, just unrelenting joy, and rambunctious enthusiasm — he’s never quit, he’s never stopped. It’s never ceased. And isn’t that awesome?" she said.
Gronk Playground
Former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski and Patriots owner Robert Kraft speak at the new Gronk Playground on the Esplanade in Boston, Aug. 19, 2025.(Will Katcher/MassLive)
The playground is ADA accessible to modern standards, according to the Esplanade Association. It is walking distance from multiple key public transit stops, including public transit stops of Science Park, North Station and Charles/MGH. Next door is the Alfond Spray Deck.
Pasted around the playground are inspirational quotes from other beloved athletes, many with Boston connections: Brady and Gronkowski partner-in-crime Julian Edelman, Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Red Sox Hall of Famer David Ortiz, tennis legend Venus Williams, Olympic gold medal gymnast and Needham native Aly Raisman, Olympic gold medal track star and Northampton native Gabby Thomas, Bruins star David Pastrnak and 2014 Boston Marathon winner Meb Keflezighi — who was in attendance Tuesday.
Shawn King, at the playground opening with his 13-year-old son Tavaj, appreciated the quotes and the positive lessons they delivered for children as they played.
“You have a bad day, you look at that and you realize it will be alright,” he said. Before they were big names, he said, those athletes “were you.”
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