Rob Gronkowski will miss the rest of the season, and it’s probably because of this Earl Thomas hit

Rob Gronkowski called the shot he suffered from Seahawks’ safety Earl Thomas in a Week 10 loss “one of the hardest [times he’d] got hit in [his] career.” It looks like Thomas’ jarring hit may have set the dominoes in motion to steal the latter half of the tight end’s 2016 season.

Buffalo reporter Vic Carucci reported Thursday that Gronkowski will miss eight weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured disk in his back. He later elaborated the injury could be traced back to Thomas’ crushing tackle.

Gronkowski left the field after getting the wind knocked out of him and later returned to the game, but wasn’t nearly as effective afterward. He missed New England’s following game, a win over the 49ers, with a chest injury originally thought to be a punctured lung, but later downgraded. He played sparingly last Sunday against the Jets and failed to record a single reception.

Back surgery is no mystery to the big tight end. He underwent disc surgery in 2009 and 2013, as well. Each time, he was able to return to All-Pro form. Thursday’s news is just another entry on a long list of maladies for “Gronk.”

If Gronkowski does return in eight weeks, he could be in line for a measure of revenge. At +240, the Patriots currently have the league’s best Super Bowl odds. The Seahawks, at +750, are third-best. If the timeline holds, the New England tight end would return just in time for the biggest game of the year — and a potential showdown with Thomas and the Legion of Boom.