Gronk tells us why he was the perfect person to tell the youths to stop eating Tide Pods

If someone asked you, “Which NFL player do you think would be most likely to eat Tide Pods?” there’s a good chance Rob Gronkowski would be your answer.

He’s a 6’6, 265-pound destroyer on the football field who’s third all-time in receiving touchdowns among tight ends. He’s also a walking, talking meme who loves partying, the number 69, and had the AIM screen name ChickMagnet4Lyfe.

Gronkowski’s next venture after football looks like it could be acting. He guest starred as himself in Family Guy and the Entourage movie, and was credited as “Party Guy Jake” in a movie called Deported. If anyone can relate to teenagers eating poison for laughs, this would be the guy.

So it was perfect for Gronk to be the one to deliver the message that eating colorful detergent filled pouches for laundry is a bad idea. They’re really poisonous and can kill you. The thing is, Tide Pods also look delicious.

Imagine a super-size edition of Fruit Gushers with two different fruit flavors and the Toaster Strudel frosting in there too. Sounds pretty good, right?

In the words of Gronk, “NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!”

At the time of his 21-second PSA, the Tide Pod Challenge was in full swing. There were jokes about Tide Pod Hot Pockets, Tide Pod pizza, and The Onion’s Sour Apple flavored Tide Pods. There was even a spike in detergent poisoned teens.

So earlier this week, we talked to Gronkowski about all things Tide pods, and why he made a PSA in his own laundry room to dissuade kids from eating them (no matter how tasty they look):

SB NATION: So did you just film and write that PSA yourself?

GRONK: They actually sent over a couple things because I didn’t know what was going on. They told me what was going and I looked it up and I was just like ‘Wow.’ They had a couple things with some words and just said ‘Could you give a message along these lines?’ I just went in and it was perfect. They gave me a couple messages to hit and I just went off my own words and made a couple videos. They put them together and did a super nice job, and I thought the message was a real positive message to put out there in the community.

The way it just blew up was unreal. And it’s crazy what was going on too with all these kids. So it worked out well, my friend just filmed the video. It was like an in-home video that blew up. It’s pretty wild.

SB NATION: As far as NFL players go, you’re maybe the most relatable teenage, viral video, meme kind of player out there. Is that why they wanted you to deliver the message?

GRONK: That’s probably a huge part. I did the Nickelodeon show Crashletes and I did like 35 episodes on Nickelodeon that are airing all the time so everywhere I go there’s a lot of kids asking about the show and there’s some ‘Hey what’s going on with the kids and the Tide Pods?’ So it felt like a perfect fit for me when Tide called to make that little PSA. They can relate to me, a lot of kids watch the show, watch football, so it worked out well.

SB NATION: Have you ever considered eating a Tide Pod?

GRONK: Have I ever considered eating one? No, but I’ve definitely joked about it.

SB NATION: They do look pretty delicious though, right?

GRONK: Yeah, every time I go through a store with my friends and we see the Tide Pods, we always make a joke like ‘Oh, look at that; that looks tasty!’ or something like that.

For what it’s worth, that’s pretty much the crux of the meme right there. People joking about how much they look like food, but mostly not actually eating them.

SB NATION: Is the Tide Pod Challenge dead now?

GRONK: I hope so. It wasn’t really like a ton of people were doing it, it was more just the kids that were doing it. And I really didn’t understand exactly why they were doing it, but it was something that was going on. I really don’t know why so I put that message out there not to do it. They’re used to wash clothes. It’s unbelievable what they do. They’re stain removers, they’re odor fighters. It’s detergent. That’s what they’re used for: to wash clothes not to eat or put in your mouth.

SB NATION: It’s like a forbidden fruit thing, right? All these people telling you not to eat it makes you think twice about maybe eating it?

GRONK: I wouldn’t have to think twice about not eating Tide Pods, but hopefully to the kids that PSA message made them think twice about not eating Tide Pods if they were thinking about it.

There you have it, folks. Tide Pods look tasty, but Gronk has never thought about eating one, so you shouldn’t either.