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Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski’s ongoing media career and resurrected football career won’t always mesh.

On Saturday night, Gronk said during a media event that he’s had the Buccaneers’ playbook for four weeks, predating the trade that sent him from New England last week. On Wednesday night, he tried to put the toothpaste back into the tube.

“This is seriously a story?” Gronkowski said on Twitter. “Lol! I was just joking around with Sage [Steele] as I was pretty much the whole time that time when I was co-hosting the show [with Barstool Big Cat]. Wowsers, my co-hosting skills on point!! Lol!! I actually just received my team-issued Surface today from the Bucs and it’s still in the package, and hoping it is all pictures and drawings. I’m pumped to open it one day hopefully soon and follow the arrows to learn where to run too. Gronk run Gronk catch ball. No playbook needed. Hehe.”

Watch his original comments, starting at about 57 minutes of the Bud Light Seltzer “Drafterparty.” After Steele pointed out that Joe Burrow has been studying the Bengals’ playbook for weeks, Gronk said he’s had the Buccaneers playbook for four weeks.

That’s a funny joke. That’s like Carrot Top-level funny.

If Gronk meant what he said, he potentially led the Buccaneers right into a tampering charge by admitting that he had the Tampa Bay playbook while still technically under contract with New England. So he had to say it was a joke, even if it wasn’t. (Then again, here’s Gronk at the roast of David Ortiz. Maybe Gronk genuinely thought it was a joke.)

And if those are the kinds of side-splitting one-liners he’ll be rattling off if he continues to co-host online parties despite ending his football retirement, he needs to display the kind of discretion that was expected of him when he found a way to talk without ever saying anything during nine seasons as a Stepford Patriot.