Patriots Tight End Rob Gronkowski Marks 26th Birthday With Family, Friends In Las Vegas

Rob Gronkowski celebrated his 26th birthday early, with lots of fun, dancing and partying over the weekend in Las Vegas. The New England Patriots tight end's real birthday will be Thursday. In Vegas, there were two cakes -- with one being used for a new version of the Gronk spike.

The pre-birthday bash included Rob’s close friends and his dad Gordon. Even his brothers Chris, Dan, Glenn and Gordie Jr. were present. The pool party at the Hard Rock hotel and casino witnessed a lot of boisterous celebrations and merrymaking with the NFLer's favorite disc jockey, Beatclan, E! Online reported.

The whole family joined the birthday bash, dressed in identical shorts, funky sunglasses and slippers. Rob lead the pack in white shorts, a sleeveless blue and gray striped Nike T-shirt, a matching bandana tied over his buzzcut. He sported funky blue glares and wore white slippers with his outfit.

Gronk was later pictured with a big birthday cake in white with a red border. The cake in the shape of an NFL football had “Champions XLIX” written on it -- honoring the Patriots' win in Super Bowl XLIX -- and wished him a happy birthday, with his nickname scribbled on it. He also carried two footballs in brown and white along with the cake. The photo was tweeted by Rehab Las Vegas. The cake was then Gronk-spiked.

Earlier, Rob rang in the celebrations and got into the Vegas mood with a wig and was pictured taking to the dance floor. He did some jumping and twerking while wearing a pair of fluorescent green shorts, gray T-shirt and a matching bandana on his head. There was a lot of spiking of inanimate objects. Rob shared a selfie on his Twitter account, with the caption, “Survivors of the fittest! Gracias.”

The shadow of Deflategate didn’t seem to put a damper on Gronkoski’s birthday plans for the weekend. He rang in his early birthday bash after the Ted Wells report said his teammate Tom Brady used under-inflated footballs in last season's AFC championship game. The New England Patriots quarterback has been suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2015 season. NFL executive Troy Vincent announced the punishment Monday.

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