PHOENIX -- Rob Gronkowski crushed the numbers during his breakout second season in 2011 with the New England Patriots, setting NFL records for receiving yards by a tight end (1,327) and total touchdowns by a tight end (18).

At the age of 22, he was like a playful St. Bernard puppy, all paws and ears and smiles, a jovial kid whose freewheeling personality belied the strength and tenacity with which he played the game.

His joie de vivre was appealing to a fan base accustomed to the all-business approach of a veteran Patriots team that displayed little patience for gaiety or frivolity. Gronk's enthusiasm proved to be contagious, even among his more staid counterparts. He was a shooting star, the Next Great Thing in New England's football landscape.

In the days leading up to the 2012 season opener, I was able to steal a rare moment alone with quarterback Tom Brady. We chuckled about the Gronkification of the Patriots, and Brady looked at me with a bemused smile and said, "Everyone keeps asking me what Gronk can do for an encore. How about winning something?"

The quarterback implicitly understood what his young tight end hadn't yet grasped: Trips to the Super Bowl are precious commodities that must be seized upon, because they are elusive, fleeting.

In Brady's mind, one had slipped from the Patriots' grasp on February 5, 2012, when New England lost Super Bowl XLVI to the New York Giants, in part because Gronkowski was severely limited by an ankle injury that would later require surgery. He caught just two passes for 26 yards and was a nonfactor in the game, but promised his teammates, "I'm looking forward to getting back here.''

Gronk recovered completely from his ankle operation, but that was only the beginning of an abysmal run of injuries that were unfathomable both in nature and in quantity.

The litany of setbacks included a broken left forearm that led to four surgeries (with a recurring infection a major culprit), a herniated disk that led to another operation in June 2013, and then, in Week 14 of the 2013 season, a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee that led to his sixth operation since the winter of 2012.

The massive, seemingly indestructible tight end had turned into Samuel L. Jackson's character in "Unbreakable."

Rob Gronkowski unleashed 12 Gronk spike TDs en route to PFWA Comeback Player of the Year honors. Jim Davis/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

"With every injury, it just takes that much more out of you mentally,'' said his mother, Diane. "It becomes so tough ... when he went down with the knee injury, I said, 'You've got to be kidding me.' I'm pretty good at holding it together but that was just too much.''

Diane was in the stadium when Rob was carted off, so she left her seat and joined him in the locker room.

"When I walked in, he looked at me and said, 'What are you doing here, mom?''' Diane recalled. "At that point I realized, 'This is bad.' No one realized that in addition to his knee, he also had a concussion.

"I had spent six hours with him the day before. I said, 'Well, Rob, you don't remember right now but we were together yesterday.' I didn't want to say too much because all of sudden I could see it in his face. He was like, 'Wow, I don't remember.'''

It was yet another setback, and, according to his mother, it was taking its toll on her son.

It wasn't outrageous to wonder if Rob Gronkowski would ever be the same, if his best days of football were already behind him before he had turned 26 years old.

The Gronkowski family, which included a confluence of football boys who played in the NFL with reckless abandon, knew all too well how quickly the football rug could be pulled out from under them.

Brother Dan's NFL career ended with a torn pectoral muscle, while brother Chris was felled by a torn hamstring.

Neither had as much at stake as Rob, the Pro Bowler in the family with the $54 million contract who worked tirelessly to rehab one injury, only to be sidelined again by another.

"They were some really dark days in there,'' Gronk conceded.

He wasn't very adept at being a recluse, so he toiled through 2-3 hours of painful rehab in the morning, then tried to amble out and enjoy friends and family later in the day. Naturally, that led to snapshots of Gronk in a bar, at a restaurant, with a pretty blonde (or two). The insinuations on social media started him on a slow burn. He knew how hard he was working to get back, yet detractors continued to suggest he wasn't working hard enough to regain his football prowess.

"Where do we even start with that?" Diane said with a sigh. "I don't look up articles on him, because they're all either overexaggerated or underexaggerated. They're always wrong. It's surprising how many people believe everything they read. I've even sat behind people while they're talking about my boys, and they've got no clue. They don't know who I am, and there they are talking about my kids and they've got the whole thing wrong.

"Luckily Rob doesn't listen to any of that. If he did, he would have been even worse off mentally.''

Gronkowski approached this season by quietly marking off "Play all 16 games" on his bucket list. Underneath, he wrote, "Be patient.'' He was in on just 44 percent of the team's snaps in Week 1, but the numbers increased on a slow, steady trajectory, a premeditated plan that he and the Patriots formulated together.

The virtually unstoppable Gronkowski has become QB Tom Brady's favorite and most reliable target. Elsa/Getty Images

By Week 8, he was slamming into defenders just because he could. Each time his body remained whole, his mental health improved another tick. He could feel his confidence blossoming.

For weeks now, Gronk has been playing at his peak, his previous maladies an unpleasant, fading memory.

"When anyone goes through adversity it all depends on how they react to it,'' he said. "I feel like everything I've been through has made me a stronger person.''

Gronkowski has re-established himself as the best tight end in the game. But, he knows, if he truly wants to make history, then he needs to find his place in the circle of champions.

Super Bowl winners are a dime a dozen around Foxboro because so many former players have remained in the area to capitalize on their success. And yet, each receives a hero's welcome each time they come out, having carved out a special place in the fabric of the New England sports community.

Former wide receiver Deion Branch won't wind up with a bust in Canton, but he will be forever immortalized in Patriots lore for his electric performance in Super Bowl XXXIX, when he took home MVP honors after catching 11 passes for 133 yards against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Only Brady and Vince Wilfork remain as current Patriots who have cradled the Lombardi trophy. Their teammates recognize what it means to be part of that exclusive club.

"You can get a feel for it when we're playing a game or we're at practice at the stadium,'' receiver Danny Amendola said. "The organization brings back Troy Brown or Tedy Bruschi and the fans just erupt. Everyone is just stoked to see them. Those are things that stand out. It's not the Pro Bowls or the stats -- it's the rings.''

Gronkowski understands. As the outside world has discovered this week, there's more to Gronk than a party bus, an off-key pop music rendition or an erotic book bearing his name. He loves football, loves to have fun, and "he's a big ole baby,'' said teammate Julian Edelman, but he's also a proud competitor who, according to offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, shares the same attention to detail that Brady does and has assumed a number of complex responsibilities in the offense that go well beyond catching a football.

Gronk put up monster numbers again this season -- 1,124 receiving yards, 12 touchdowns and one bouncer's certificate for throwing Colts safety Sergio Brown "out of the club" -- but the numbers will seem empty, he said, without a ring to accompany them.

"This game's huge,'' Gronkowski acknowledged. "Legacies are based on this game for a lot of players -- for Tom, for Vince, for the whole organization, and, I feel, for the legacy of myself.

Gronkowki is a fun-loving, jovial character off the field, but all business once he steps on the gridiron. AP Photo/Mark Humphrey

"[Winning] a Super Bowl is a lot different than being MVP or having an award for Outstanding Player. Being Super Bowl champion, I feel like if that occurs it will no doubt be one of the greatest things that's ever happened [to me].''

He is a critical component of New England's game plan, a bruising weapon with receiver's speed who often draws double teams, thereby providing opportunities for his teammates. He acknowledged yesterday that he and Brady check with one another when they step up to the line, because Brady will audible if he senses there's a matchup he can exploit by putting the ball in Gronkowski's hands.

Against Seattle, they'll encounter a superb defense which favors a physical, hard-hitting brand of football.

"It's a physical game," Gronkowski said. "That's enjoyable to me.''

He admits there were days when he was rehabbing his knee that he'd look out the window and wonder if he'd ever run in the park again.

Long conversations with Stevan Ridley and Wes Welker kept him afloat. They had been where he was and had come all the way back.

"Once you hit a point where you feel like you're gaining, you're getting back at it, that's when you gain the positive energy and all the positive thoughts," Gronkowski said. "You just think in your head, 'I can be back better than ever and better and stronger.' In my case, I feel I've done that.''

Diane was rewinding games from earlier this season the other day and came across an announcer from Week 3 who declared her son "was a young man in an old man's body.''