The Cheerleader // Rob Gronkowski

t e n

"Hey, are you Hanna Rose?" I turned around from my position on the sideline to see one of the rookie cornerbacks standing behind me. Even though he had about 8 inches and probably 100 pounds on me, he seemed intimidated by me.

"Yeah, that's me. What's up?" I asked.

He shifted his weight, "I just wanted to tell you that my little sister is a huge fan of you."

I smiled, "That is so sweet! I'd love to meet her one day!"

You could see his eyes light up as he talked about his sister. "I'm Shawn, by the way. Shawn Jones."

"Well, it's great to meet you, Shawn. Let me know when your sister comes to a game so I can meet her!" I told him, as the players headed into the locker room for a final meeting before the game.

He smiled, "Definitely."

I turned my attention back to the pregame festivities.  With the familiar sounds of Crazy Train coming over the Gillette Stadium speakers, I led my team to form the tunnel for the team's entrance.  This was always the part of the game where I most feared for my life - 52 huge, hyped-up football players running at full speed out of a tunnel right in front of you could turn into a pileup extremely fast, and they weren't exactly known for their gracefulness.  As the pyrotechnics went off and the crowd went wild, I made eye contact with a certain tight end.

"Rob!" I screamed as he suddenly turned right and sprinted towards me.  Fear spiked in my stomach, as would anyone's if a massive football player took a hard right in their direction.  However, he stopped right in front of me and before I could process what was happening, I was in the air and twirling around.  He set me down and I caught a wink from behind his helmet before he turned and followed the rest of his team.  Blushing, I continued to cheer, with all of Gillette's eyes now on me.

~

After the game - a blowout victory for the Patriots - I assembled the cheerleaders on the practice field.

"Everyone please take an order form!" I instructed, "We're ordering jerseys to wear at the next game."

One of the rookies raised her hand, "We get to pick which player's jersey we want?" she asked.

I nodded, and began to fill out my own form. One of my officers, Lea, leaned over to me, "So, you do know that probably half of them are going to pick Gronk, right?"

I shrugged, not taking my attention off of the paper in front of me, "Their mistake."

~

I collected all the forms, and finally dismissed the girls. Personally, I couldn't wait for a long, hot shower and then an evening of nothing but Netflix. I was super excited for these jerseys, the designs were adorable. Nike had created a women's cut jersey that would cut off about halfway down in a cute crop top style.

Packing up my things, I turned off the lights to the field house and headed out to my car.