The NFL on Fox crew revealed how they pulled off a prank involving a tight end Rob Gronkowski talking about a non-existent player.

During the recording of Fox NFL Sunday in Gronkowski’s first season as an analyst, the team was assigned to talk about Rich Russo – a Dallas Cowboys tight end with missing fingers.

“We decided to play a prank on our friend Gronk,” said NFL Insider Jay Glazer said. “He thought we were going live with an extra segment. Everyone at Fox knows this isn’t real, except Gronk. And the premise was that I was going to break the news that the Cowboys were activating this great Pro Bowl tight end, who doesn’t exist, and Gronk has to go on what he thinks is live TV, to talk about this tight end.

During the segment, Michael Strahan And How long raved about Russo’s importance to the team. When they presented it to Gronkowski, he offered some non-specific observations. The crew eventually burst into laughter for the host Short Menefee walked up to Gronkowksi and told him it was all a joke.

“Is that live?” said a stunned Gronkowski. “Right when (the segment) was done, I wanted to say, ‘Guys, I’ve never heard of Rich Russo in my life. I’ve never heard of him in my life!”

After seeing the joke on Sunday’s episode, Gronkowski admitted that the fake segment “made my head spin.”

While the joke was relatively harmless, you could argue that it validates major criticisms of modern sports media. Some believe that’s what many of the most popular faces in sports media look like Stephen A. Smith – don’t even look at the sports in which they claim to be experts. In the Fox Sports segment, Gronkowski may have confirmed that analysts simply make things up when they are unfamiliar with a subject. That could explain the more questionable admissions in the industry.

Watch above via Fox

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