Rob Gronkowski believes Pro Bowl changes may be needed

(Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images) A couple of days after the New England Patriots lost the AFC Championship to the Denver Broncos, news came that none of the seven Patriots selected to play in the Pro Bowl would be going to the exhibition.

One of those seven, Rob Gronkowski, offered his reasoning for skipping out on the opportunity on Wednesday.

During an appearance on NFL Network – he’s made the rounds on several shows while in San Francisco – Gronkowski said he was too hurt to make the trip.

[Score great deals for Super Bowl 50 tickets at SeatGeek]

“That game might need to be changed,” he said. “I mean, you can’t go from a whole season, AFC Championship game, giving it all you’ve got and thinking you’re going to hop on a flight to fly 12 hours to Hawaii that next Tuesday, when I still can’t even walk because I took like 20 hits that game.

“I was not hopping on that plane and just be more tight, more sore when I got off, and just be miserable the whole ride. If it was changed … I totally understand if you don’t go to the playoffs, you got a few weeks off, the Pro Bowl is awesome. But it’s hard to go from that game, giving it all you got in the playoffs, to go right to the Pro Bowl. You got to have your body rest, man.”

Gronkowski does a point, particularly in the Patriots’ situation this year: they played the conference championship in Denver, which meant two four-hour-plus flights in a matter of a couple of days, and no sooner would he have returned to Massachusetts would he have been on another plane for an even longer amount of time.

Not to mention, airplane seats can’t be all that comfortable when you’re 6-foot-6, 275 pounds.

[Follow Shutdown Corner on Facebook for instant updates from Super Bowl 50]

Gronkowski did suffer a bone bruise and knee sprain in New England’s regular-season loss to the Broncos, in Week 12, that caused him to miss one game but kept him on the practice report; he also had a back issue in the final days of the season.

After a record number of players backed out of this year’s Pro Bowl, the chorus of those who believe it needs to be changed has grown louder, but so far no alternatives have been offered.

Podcast: The end of the Cam race debate and Eli vs. Peyton: