On Thursday, President Obama welcomed the New England Patriots to the White House to celebrate the NFL team’s victory in this year’s Super Bowl.
After the president’s speech — during which Obama made a joke about the team’s “Deflate Gate” controversy — tight end Rob Gronkowski speculated that the president may have been drunk during the ceremony, according to video obtained by CBS Boston.
“There was no drinking,” Gronkowski told reporters, snickering. “Maybe the president was being wasted … from his ‘deflate’ joke.”
During his speech, Obama quipped, “I usually tell a bunch of jokes at these events, but with the Patriots in town, I was worried that 11 out of 12 of them would fall flat.”
He added, “That whole story got blown a little out of proportion.”
The president also took particular aim at Gronkowski, who has been lovingly dubbed by fans with the nickname “Gronk.”
“He’s not making rabbit ears back there, is he?” Obama said of the NFL star. “I told him to keep his shirt on. He asked me what would happen if he took it off. I said Secret Service probably wouldn’t like it. He said, what could they do to me?”
