Rob Gronkowski, king of celebrations, did not like the Patriots celebrating Sunday's victory over Bills

BOSTON -- Rob Gronkowski celebrated so much on the football field that he managed to get his name attached to the spiking of a football. Between all of his ferocious spikes, plus his special-occasion dances, Gronkowski was known for having fun on the field.

Yet what he saw play out on the turf at Gillette Stadium following the Patriots' near-walkoff touchdown on Sunday apparently rubbed him the wrong way.

In a chat with former teammate Patrick Chung, Gronkowski expressed some disgust -- and some jealousy -- that the Patriots celebrated the way they did after Mac Jones' game-winning touchdown pass to Mike Gesicki on Sunday.

Gronkowski: If you ask me, that celebration was pretty ridiculous, Chung. Whenever we celebrated just a little bit, we would get hounded. They just won one game, and they celebrated more than we would when we won a Super Bowl. That was like one of the most absurd celebrations. Like I'm like, wow, they won a game, they went that crazy. Like they're acting like they've never been there before, Chung. So what do you think about it? They were griddling or Griddying all over the place like to an absurd level. Chung, what do you think about it?

Chung: I mean, times are different, Gronk. You know that. I mean, younger kids. And at the same time, bro, it's a division win, very much needed. So that's a big booster for the team. So whatever they gotta do, celebrate all you want to, just win some more games, we'll be good. But we did get hounded though. I used to try to pump the crowd up when I was younger, and Bill would say, 'Stop worrying about pumping up the crowd and cover the tight end!' I'd be like 'Oh damn, all right coach, my bad.' But different times, let the kids have fun. If it's gonna boost their morale or get them going in the right direction, then I'm all for it.

To be fair, Gronkowski did actually complain about the limits on player celebrations when he was still in New England, specifically after Brandin Cooks piggybacked on Gronkowski after a touchdown in 2017.

"We got yelled at -- we're not allowed to talk about celebrations. That's what we got told," Gronkowski said that day. "But, I kind of want to talk about it ... but I kind of don't, because I'll get in trouble, so I don't know what to do."

On the other hand, this new video of Gronkowski presents some problems.

For one, it sounds like he's reading a script. Maybe he just wanted to go viral and knew this would work. If so, hats off, well done, all of that. But he seemed anything but natural in the friendly chat with Chung.

Second, as stated previously, Gronkowski celebrated a lot. He'd spike the bejesus out of the football after almost all of his touchdowns, occasionally taking breaks to walk like a Parliament guard or laugh and point at a poor helpless defensive back. It was cool. People loved it. And he showed he was having fun.

Gronkowski expressed in 2017 that the Patriots got "yelled at" for discussing celebrations, but he's now kind of just repeating the behavior he didn't like from the coaching staff back then by tut-tutting the current generation of Patriots for doing what he wanted to do in the first place. 

Gronkowski also never played for a Patriots team that was 1-5, so he doesn't really know what the current team felt when snapping out of that funk. And he wasn't really ever a part of a game-winning touchdown so close to the final whistle. (Gronkowski was not playing for the Kenbrell Thompkins game in 2013.)

But worst of all ... the Patriots didn't even celebrate that much on Sunday, all things considered. They celebrated an appropriate amount! Any football team would celebrate at or above the level that the Patriots celebrated after pulling off a win with 12 seconds left.

After completing a 75-yard game-winning drive, they did a little dancing and got off the field. 

So, unless he turned 60 years old this year without telling anybody, that's a sad take from Gronkowski. Fifteen-yard penalty on him for insufficient celebration.

First time for everything.