Rob Gronkowski believes American football has taken too many elite athletes away from soccer, hurting the USMNT 's ceiling before the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The argument is not that the United States lacks athletes. It is that many of its most explosive runners, jumpers, receivers, and defensive backs are developed for football before soccer ever has a chance to keep them.
That makes Gronkowski's take especially interesting. He is not criticizing football from the outside. He is saying the sport that made him famous may also be limiting America's soccer potential.
Photo by Christopher Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images
As The Late Run Show shared, Rob Gronkowski argued that American football has damaged the United States' ability to build a top men's soccer team.
"I think football, our football in America, kind of ruined our soccer game. Kind of ruined our soccer team for USA because all our best athletes play the game of American football," Gronkowski said.
He added, "If those athletes started at a young age, like our wide receivers and DBs, the best athletes in the world. … If we didn't have American football, I believe that Team USA would be a top three [soccer] team in the world."
Gronkowski's point is easy to understand. In the U.S., many of the fastest and most powerful young athletes are pushed toward football, basketball, baseball, or track before soccer becomes their main path.
That leaves the USMNT competing in a global sport where many countries put their best athletes into soccer first.
The 2026 World Cup will be played in the United States, Canada , and Mexico , so the pressure on the USMNT will be bigger than usual. Gronkowski's comments turn that pressure into a bigger question about the entire American sports system.
Gronkowski then used the USWNT as the comparison, arguing that women's soccer benefits because elite female athletes in the U.S. are more likely to grow up inside the soccer pathway.
"That's why I believe our women's team is so good because they get their best athletes to play right from the beginning," he continued.
The NFL legend concluded, "But we take away our soccer athletes and we make them become American football players. I believe we kind of ruined that sport because we just have American football."
That comparison is the strongest part of his argument. The USWNT has been one of the most successful national teams in soccer history, while the USMNT is still chasing a true breakthrough on the world stage.
The men's team does have real talent, including players such as Christian Pulisic , Weston McKennie , Tyler Adams , Gio Reyna , Tim Weah , and Folarin Balogun .
But Gronkowski is arguing about the missing layer. He believes the U.S. would look very different if more receiver-type athletes and defensive-back-type athletes had been developed as soccer players from childhood.
That does not guarantee a top-three world ranking. Still, Gronkowski's larger point will resonate before 2026.
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