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Rob Gronkowski has advanced to the Final 8 of the Madden 13 Cover Vote. Gronk beat out Jared Allen in the second round, getting 65 percent of the 428,174 votes that were cast. Next up for Gronk in the Round 3 is Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson. The voting in this round runs from April 4-11.

Click HERE to vote on Gronkowski vs. Johnson.

BOSTON -- Tight end Rob Gronkowski was among a large contingent of Patriots on hand for Thursday's Celtics-Lakers overtime thriller at TD Garden. During the game, he could be seen shouting at Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant.

So what did Bryant yell back at him?

"I told him the Eagles need a tight end," said Bryant, a Philadelphia native. "I’m recruiting. He’s a freak athlete. He shouted at me, I shouted back."

Somewhere, Brent Celek isn't amused.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft sat next to Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck, while players Vince Wilfork, Patrick Chung, Julian Edelman, Brandon Spikes, Devin McCourty, Sterling Moore, Tiquan Underwood, and Gronkowski were all in attendance. The Patriots received a standing ovation from the crowd when a handful of players were displayed on the JumboTron in the first quarter.

Gronkowski earned some additional JumboTron time later in the game when someone with a sense of humor put him on the video board while an LMFAO song blared. Gronkowski has been in the headlines for dancing shirtless following the Patriots' Super Bowl loss last weekend in Indianapolis while LMFAO performed. Gronkowski just flashed his familiar smile when he realized he was on camera and limited his moves to a little head bob from his seat next to the TNT broadcast position at midcourt.

QUARTERBACK: Tom Brady fell short of his fourth game-winning touchdown drive in a Super Bowl. He overcame a ragged start to find his groove. He set a Super Bowl record with 16 straight completions, including 15 straight on two touchdown passes. His first touchdown pass, a 4-yarder to Danny Woodhead, showed his patience to wait for the running back to break free of the linebacker. Brady's second one, a 12-yarder, was quicker recognition to find tight end Aaron Hernandez against the middle linebacker. Brady did get hit on his interception (which turned out to be a long punt) and seemed to hurt his already banged-up left shoulder. He started off the scoring but not the way he intended. His intentional grounding penalty on the Patriots' first play led to a safety, a strange mistake for a quarterback known for such great awareness. Grade: B-plus.

OFFENSE: The Patriots' receivers let Brady down in the fourth quarter with drops from Wes Welker, Deion Branch and Hernandez. The passing game was limited with tight end Rob Gronkowski less than full strength with a high-ankle sprain. He didn't get a catch until three minutes left in the first half. Hernandez picked up the slack with a 12-yard touchdown grab in the third quarter. The offensive line held up quite well against a Giants pass rush that recorded five sacks of Brady in the last Super Bowl matchup. Welker was a hot target in the passing game, although he couldn't pull down a key reception late in the fourth quarter. Grade: C.

DEFENSE: The Patriots' much-maligned defense came up big in the biggest game of the season. Playing both safeties deep to defend against the deep pass, the Patriots made it tough for Eli Manning and forced him to throw into tight windows. The New England run defense got pushed around early (70 yards rushing allowed in the first half), but fared better in the second half. The Patriots played more physical after they were sparked by Patrick Chung's hit on Hakeem Nicks along the sideline. The Patriots then allowed Ahmad Bradshaw to score a 6-yard touchdown with 40 seconds left, so they could get the ball back into the hands of Brady. Grade: B-minus.

COACHING: Bill Belichick lost his second straight Super Bowl. The Patriots had a great game plan defensively and were running an efficient offense. But it was questionable to throw on second-and-11 in the fourth quarter — which resulted in an incompletion to Welker and stopped the clock with four minutes left in the game. Then, the challenge on the Mario Manningham catch on the Giants' final drive cost the Patriots a timeout. Belichick prides himself on precision and discipline, which is why having 12 men on the field for defense was so surprising. That penalty negated a recovered fumble for the New England defense and led to the Giants' first touchdown (a Victor Cruz 2-yard catch in the first quarter). Grade: B.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 29-yard field goal. The kickoff coverage team allowed a 34-yard return early in the third quarter. The Patriots' return game was virtually non-existent. Punter Zoltan Mesko was outplayed by Steve Weatherford, averaging 38 yards per punt. Grade: C.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The New England Patriots' Rob Gronkowski eclipsed the NFL record for receiving yards by a tight end, then won a battle with the New Orleans’ Saints Jimmy Graham to get his name in the record books.

With the Patriots leading the Buffalo Bills, 49-21, New England got the ball with 1:30 remaining in the game and backup quarterback Brian Hoyer behind center. Rather than taking a knee, Hoyer hit Gronkowski up the left sideline for a 22-yard gain that pushed Gronkowski's season yardage total to 1,327. Graham's total stood at 1,310 as the Saints' game against the Carolina Panthers ended just moments earlier.

After Gronkowski's catch in front of the New England bench, Patriots players and coach Bill Belichick erupted in applause. Hoyer then took a knee three times to run out the clock.

When Gronkowski hauled in a 19-yard pass from Tom Brady with just less than 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, it boosted his season yardage total to 1,296, six more yards than the previous record of 1,290, established by Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow of the San Diego Chargers in 1980.

But at that point, Graham’s total was 1,298.

Gronkowski nabbed a 7-yard touchdown pass from Brady with 3:02 left in the game to push his total to 1,305 yards. At that point, though, Graham had boosted his total to 1,310.

Gronkowski's pair of touchdown catches gave him 17 for the season, and 18 TDs overall, extending another pair of NFL records. His 17-yard TD reception with 1:32 remaining in the third gave New England a 28-21 lead after it had trailed 21-0 in the first quarter.

Those 18 TDs account for the second-highest total in team history, lifting him past Curtis Martin, who scored 17 in 1996. Randy Moss reached the end zone a New England record 23 times in 2007.

For the game, Gronkowski had eight catches for 108 yards.

In the first half, the 6-foot-6, 265-pounder was targeted only three times by Brady, but made the catch each time, totaling 26 yards and leaving him 46 yards shy of the record. He added 17 on a catch during New England’s first drive in the third quarter.

It already had been a record-setting season for the second-year tight end.

Gronkowski entered the game with 15 receiving touchdowns, an NFL record for tight ends, eclipsing San Francisco’s Vernon Davis (2009) and San Diego’s Antonio Gates (2004), each of whom grabbed 13. Gronkowski also had a 2-yard scoring run, giving him a total of 16 touchdowns, the highest number by a tight end in NFL history.

Last week Gronkowski passed Ben Coates (1,174) for the most receiving yards by a Patriots tight end. Coastes had established the franchise mark in 1994.

Gronkowksi is one of only seven tight ends to reach 1,200 yards in a season. Gronkowski had grabbed 27 TD passes in 33 career games, reaching 20 in the fewest games ever by a tight end.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski didn't get the bad news until he got back in the locker room after Sunday's 31-24 triumph over the Colts at Gillette Stadium. Quarterback Tom Brady didn't even know until informed by the media at his postgame press conference.

Gronkowski appeared to set an NFL record for touchdown receptions by a tight end when he produced his third score of the game late in the third quarter. Initially deemed a 2-yard touchdown pass, the play was later re-scored a 2-yard run, meaning Gronkowski remains tied with San Francisco's Vernon Davis (2009) and San Diego's Antonio Gates (2004) with 13 receiving scores on the year.

"Oh it was?" Brady asked after being informed of the change. "That's OK. I'm glad we scored. That was a good play, good blocking. They blocked well for him on that play. That was great."

But Brady later admitted: "It must have been close. I thought it was a forward pass -- I threw it."

Gronkowski didn't seem too upset. After all, he's got four more games to get the mark. And with nine touchdowns in his last five games, including multiple touchdowns in three of the last four contests, he should have the record before long.

"I’m cool with it. That was my first rush of my career -- of my whole life -- and I got a touchdown on it," Gronkowski said. "My first rushing touchdown ever, I’m cool."

Gronkowski, known for his emphatic post-score spikes, held tight to the ball after the third score before throwing it to the sideline for safekeeping.

"I thought it was [the record-setting ball], so I wanted to keep it," he said. "I wish I spiked it now."

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- With his second touchdown catch of the game Sunday against the Colts, the Patriots' Rob Gronkowski tied the NFL for touchdown receptions for tight ends with 13.

Gronkowski tied the mark owned by San Francisco's Vernon Davis (2009) and San Diego's Antonio Gates (2004) and now has more than four games to establish a new NFL mark.

Gronkowski, who has caught a touchdown pass in each of his last five games, reeled in an 11-yard touchdown in the second quarter, then followed with a 21-yard touchdown grab on the first drive of the second half.

This is Gronkowski's third two-touchdown game in his last four games and he has eight touchdowns in the past five outings.

Gronkowski nearly established the NFL record late in the third quarter when he caught a lateral from Tom Brady on a 2-yard touchdown. The play was initially scored a touchdown pass, but later changed to a run.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- There was a time this season when it appeared we might be in a for a rare triple dose of Gronkowski action when the Colts and Patriots meet Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

Alas, the Patriots cut backup tight end Dan Gronkowski last month, just a short while after Colts fullback Chris Gronkowski tore a pectoral muscle, ending his season. Yes, it's been a rough stretch for the siblings of Patriots second-year tight end Rob Gronkowski.

During a conference call with the Indianapolis media on Wednesday, Gronkowski was asked about the disappointment in not being able to go up against one of his brothers on Sunday and provided a typically hilarious Gronk answer.

"Definitely a little disappointed, but [Chris] got that injury and he got that surgery, so he’s recovering well," said Rob Gronkowski. "That would have definitely been cool, because he was on kickoff and I’m on kickoff return, so I would have had an easy block there.”

Yes, even now there's plenty of sibling rivalry between the Gronkowski brothers. Just like when they were kids.

"Growing up, it was always pretty crazy around the house," said Rob Gronkowski. "[There were] always fights, and [the brothers were] always playing video games to backyard sports and everything.”

A couple days after Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said he's been hard on younger players like Rob Gronkowski and fellow tight end Aaron Hernandez, Gronkowski hinted the offensive veterans have been key is his own development.

“The veteran guys here are awesome to work with," he said. "They’re great players, they work hard in practice and you love taking what they have out there. You love watching them, you love seeing how they get out of their cuts and everything, so you can take it on to your game and definitely learn from them.”

Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski's emphatic post-touchdown spikes have become quite the attraction. So much so that he's found offseason work because of them.

The Worcester Sharks, the American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL's San Jose Sharks, have agreed to reimburse Gronkowski the $7,500 he was fined by the NFL for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty he accrued while spiking the ball near an opponent in a Week 10 win over the rival New York Jets. In exchange, Gronkowski will spike a ceremonial puck before the Sharks meet the rival Providence Bruins on Feb. 24 at the DCU Center.

"The Sharks are really excited that Gronkowski took us up on our offer,” Worcester Sharks president Michael A. Mudd said in a press release Wednesday announcing the appearance. “This is a win-win for everyone. Sharks fans are Patriots fans and I know that they will pack the house to root on Rob and the Sharks."

Gronkowski is second in the NFL with 10 receiving touchdowns this season and now boasts 20 for his career. His spikes have become a spectacle of their own, including this past Monday when Gronkowski, dazed from landing awkwardly on his head while diving into the end zone on his second touchdown receptions against the Chiefs, staggered to his feet and still delivered a spike.

Even Patriots coach Bill Belichick had some fun earlier this week when asked if he's ever seen anyone spike the ball as hard as Gronkowski.

"I don’t think so," said Belichick. "It’s like he’s drilling for oil."

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Rob Gronkowski's neck had just bent in a way that no neck should ever bend, but nothing was going to detour him from his trademark spike, not even a cringeworthy crash after being upended en route to the end zone on a third-quarter touchdown Monday night.

Gronkowski staggered to his feet and spiked the ball -- maybe slightly less emphatically than we've come to know -- after his second touchdown in New England's 34-3 thrashing of the Chiefs at Gillette Stadium.

Impossibly, he was right back on the field on the Patriots' next offensive series, missing just a protection assignment on the PAT after his score. So how's his neck doing?

"It feels great," an emphatic Gronkowski said. "It might even feel better now."

Gronkowski will probably be sore Tuesday morning, but he said trainers gave him a concussion test Monday and deemed him capable of returning to action. (He joked he even started giving the trainers his own math problems to show he was fine.) Gronkowski finished with team-highs with four catches for 96 yards to go along with his two scores, giving him 10 on the year.

That included a 52-yard touchdown grab in the second quarter, the longest of his career. What's more, Gronkowski became the fastest tight end to 20 career touchdowns (a mere 26 games), besting Mike Ditka's mark (31). He admitted he's playing with a lot of confidence and is in no hurry to go down when the ball comes his way.

But he does still pinch himself sometimes.

"It's still pretty crazy. It's still a dream come true to be in the NFL," he said. "Some days I wake up, talk to [Patriots linebacker] Dane [Fletcher], my roommate, and we’re like, ‘Dude, we're in the NFL!' It’s crazy still. We still can’t kind of believe it. It’s playing with all these great players that we looked up to when we were in high school and even middle school. It's so much fun coming out. But you've got to treat every moment like it's your last."

And that's why, once he realized he was fine after the scary fall, he made sure to spike the ball.

Patriots tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez are a matchup nightmare, especially in the end zone:

In the past, a Chiefs-Patriots matchup used to thrust the tight end position into the spotlight, heavily focusing on how New England would defend Tony Gonzalez. When Kansas City invades Gillette Stadium on "Monday Night Football" for the first meeting between the teams in three seasons, the script will be flipped a bit.

Patriots second-year tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez have emerged as tough covers for the opposition, and Kansas City coach Todd Haley raved about the duo this week. In fact, Haley suggested that the Chiefs had their eyes on both during the 2010 NFL draft while searching for their own replacement after Gonzalez departed for Atlanta the year before.

"Both these guys are really playing well. Hernandez and Gronkowski are players that I both, personally, really thought a lot of coming out [of college] and we spent time with both the guys at the combine," Haley said. "We spent a lot of time watching tape and [they're] players that [we] really, really thought had a chance to be good and they haven't disappointed."

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Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski has been fined $7,500 by the NFL for an unsportsmanlike conduct incurred in Sunday's win over the New York Jets, according to a league spokesman.

After catching a 5-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tom Brady with 4:44 remaining in the third quarter, Gronkowski spiked the ball near a Jets defender, eliciting a 15-yard penalty.

Gronkowski said earlier this week the penalty will not detour him from his trademark emphatic spike after future scores.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Looking for the perfect Christmas gift for that special Patriots fan in your life? Allow Rob Gronkowski to pitch his holiday idea:

"Just buy a couple raffle tickets and, yup, Christmas with me, baby!" he said with pitchman gusto on Wednesday inside the Patriots' locker room.

In conjunction with charity auctions conducted by NetRaffle.org, Gronkowski is raffling off a chance to attend New England's Christmas Eve battle against the Miami Dolphins, then meet him for photos after the game. There's an autographed jersey and football involved, along with money for parking and food expenses.

Coming off another monster performance against the Jets on Sunday, Gronkowski was a popular topic Wednesday at Gillette Stadium. Even Patriots quarterback Tom Brady marveled at what the second-year player has done in his short time in the league.

"I think for any rookie to come in and play a significant role on a team is impressive," said Brady. "When I was a rookie, I didn't do anything. I was sitting up in the stands eating nachos before games."

Brady later noted the on-field maturity displayed by both Gronkowski and fellow second-year tight end Aaron Hernandez. When a reporter playfully asked for clarification if he was referencing Gronkowski and Hernandez in regards to maturity, Brady played along.

"I mean, on the field, they certainly are very mature... they don’t play like rookies," said Brady. "That’s all I really care about anyways, how they perform on the field. I could care less what they do [away from it]."

Informed at that point about Gronkowski's charity raffle, Brady asked how he could get in on it. Told to stop by Gronkowski's locker, Brady sneaked in one more playful jab.

"I don’t need any more time around him," he said.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Don't expect the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski incurred for spiking the ball near a Jets defender after a touchdown in Sunday's win to detour him from his typically emphatic celebrations.

"No, I'm going to make them bigger," he said with a laugh on Wednesday. "Bring down my spikes? Those weren't even that big."

After catching a 5-yard touchdown pass with 4:44 remaining in the third quarter on Sunday, Gronkowski spiked the ball near a Jets defender, eliciting a 15-yard penalty. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady admitted that Gronkowski would catch some grief for the penalty, but didn't see much wrong with it.

"I didn’t see it. I mean, he spikes it every time he scores, so I don’t know if that’s flagrant or what," Brady said during his weekly call to Boston sports radio WEEI on Monday. Asked if he spikes the ball after a (rare) rushing touchdown, Brady added: "Yeah, which happens like once every three years. But when Gronk scores -- it was like his eighth touchdown of the year -- he spikes the ball and he deflates the ball. I love that, because I like the deflated ball. But I feel bad for that football, because he puts everything he can into those spikes."

Also on Monday, Belichick hinted that, while he doesn't like any penalty, he might have understood there was no malice intended by Gronkowski.

"Some I think bother you more than others," said Belichick. "All penalties bother me. They bother us, whether it’s 12 guys in the huddle or unsportsmanlike conduct or blocking in the back or whatever other ones we had. We correct those, we point them out, we work on them, we want to prevent them from reoccurring. Believe me, every penalty gets addressed. But [two unsportsmanlike calls on Sunday] were -- there were some circumstances involved in both plays. Was it good? No. Were some circumstances involved? Yes. Can we do a better job? Yes. Hopefully we will."

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- After watching Rob Gronkowski catch a game-high eight passes for a 113 yards and two touchdowns, Jets coach Rex Ryan was asked how much of a matchup problem the second-year tight end can be.

"About 6 [feet], 7 [inches]," sighed Ryan.

Gronkowski used his size to his advantage, hauling in a pair of touchdown passes in the middle frames Sunday, helping the Patriots rally out of their only hole of the night late in the first half, then race away after the intermission.

"That was one of the issues," said Ryan. "The kid makes a lot of plays. He's a factor in the red zone. You have to watch [Wes] Welker -- they have a lot of weapons. We tried to match them up in different zones, we tried to bracket sometimes. But the young man did a nice job of catching the football."

The Jets pulled ahead after a Mark Sanchez touchdown run with 1:20 remaining in the first half, but Gronkowski helped the Patriots respond with a pivotal score before the break. Even with New England starting at its own 20, Gronkowski hauled in a 12-yard pass to light the fuse, then instant replay overturned a potential fumble call, preserving Gronkowski's 23-yard grab that moved the drive into Jets territory. Facing 3rd-and-12 at the New York 18, Gronkowski rose up over the defense near the middle of the end zone, while hauling in his first touchdown pass -- and absorbing a big hit to the thigh in the process, but it sent New England into the intermission up 13-9.

Still nursing a one-score lead late in the third quarter, the Patriots capitalized on a short field off a Rob Ninkovich interception when Gronkowski caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Brady (he put a little too much gusto into the spike and got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, though the penalty didn't hinder the Patriots).

Gronkowski hesitated to suggest his size made him a tough matchup for New York.

"There a lot of guys that are main targets for [Brady]," he said. "Everyone is playing great. You never know who can be the main target that game. You never know what the coverage is going to be. You just have to be prepared for every game, every coverage, and go out there ready."

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PITTSBURGH -- Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is certain he was in the end zone when he hauled in a pass from Tom Brady with little more than four minutes remaining in Sunday's 25-17 loss to the Steelers at Heinz Field.

But Gronkowski also knows that, with the Patriots trailing by two scores and attempting to rally in the final minutes, the team couldn't afford to potentially risk a timeout in order to review the play. But while New England ultimately punched in the score, it took nearly 90 additional seconds to do such, costing the team valuable time that might have prevented the opportunity to come from behind.

"It's such a quick situation -- that was the call, we just have to move on," said Gronkowski. "We needed the timeouts, so you can’t even risk it. I mean, that's what the ref called, so we just moved on. We eventually scored, which is good, but, throughout whole game, we gotta play as a team better, we gotta execute better out there."

"I thought about it, but there was no evidence to challenge it," head coach Bill Belichick said after the game. "I certainly couldn't see it from my angle and they replayed the play in the box. There was nothing to tell us."

Gronkowski was ruled short of the goal line on an 8-yard grab, setting up 3rd-and-1, and not only did Kevin Faulk get turned away on another short pass, but it took the Patriots nearly the entire play clock to get that play off. On fourth down, Gronkowski got held, giving New England a new set of downs. Finally, with 2:35 to play, Aaron Hernandez caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from Brady to pull the Patriots within six at 23-17.

Short on time, New England elected to go for an onside kick, and even though they eventually got the ball back with a final gasp, Brady was sacked leading to a safety that sealed Pittsburgh's triumph.

Did Brady think Gronkowski was in the end zone?

"It's not really up to me," said Brady. "I don’ know how it looked on TV."

Informed it was close, he smiled and considered how to properly phrase his opinion.

"I wish they’d have reviewed it," said Brady. "But they didn’t. We kept fighting until the end, like we always do."