Return began in February.

There are actually folks on twitter who are convinced that when the Bucs signed Tom Brady that he was given control of the roster, and that he ordered Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht to pull off a trade to get Rob Gronkowski.

To hear Gronk discuss how he wound up on the Bucs, that notion cannot be further from the truth.

In short, Gronk, speaking in a Zoom teleconference today, suggested the key factor in his return to football was an opportunity to reunite with Brady.

The seeds of his return to the NFL began to sprout he said when he linked up with Brady in February.

“We had a little conversation,” Gronk said. “There was no pressure on either side. We got together, I’d say probably two months ago, just to throw the ball. I hadn’t touched a football since last year when we threw in L.A. at UCLA.

“I knew I was coming back in my mind, too. I love the game of football. If [playing football] ever sparked me again, I did want to be ready. So it is not like I wanted to not be ready. So throwing the football around and working out still was definitely crucial.

“We actually got together two months ago and we rarely talked about what his decision was going to be [or] where I am at.”

There, after catching passes from Brady, Gronk said the urge to play returned and he confessed to Brady he was open-minded about linking back up with the six-time Super Bowl winner.

“‘Hey, you know, I’m kind of getting that fire underneath me again,'” Gronk told Brady. “‘I’m definitely interested in your decision that you make.’

“I didn’t put any pressure on him but I said, ‘If there is a right opportunity out there and you go somewhere and the opportunity is right, even if you go back to the Patriots, and I feel like the opportunity is right, there is a possible chance I would definitely like to reconnect.’ That is where the conversation started a little bit.

“He was all fired up and juiced up about it. That was something that was pretty cool. In the end, it all happened over time.”

To hear Gronk speak, it’s not difficult to connect the dots. When Brady was talking turkey with Licht and Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians about whether to sign with the Bucs, he likely told Licht and Arians that if he signed with the Bucs he might be able to talk Gronk into joining him, provided the Bucs could obtain his rights.

Gronk, though retired, was still under contact with the Patriots.

That sort of parallels what Gronk’s agent, oily Drew Rosenhaus said of the timeline on SiriusXM NFL Radio last night.

Gronk later said how important chemistry is between a receiver and a quarterback and he and Brady have that. Gronk explained how often receivers change teams and never recapture the magic they had with their previous quarterback.

So it’s a real stretch to suggest that Brady ordered Licht to go get Gronkowski or Brady himself would go running straight to Team Glazer demanding heads roll for insubordination.