. >> reporter: the former patrio gronk's injury is to a disk that's already been repaired in the past, it would make recovery even more difficult. >> what happen s is every time you take out a piece of the disk, the vertebrae get closer and closer together. the closer they get, two things happen. one, it lets nerves get pinched more. so you end up having leg pain. also as the vertebrae get closer, they start rubbing and that causes a lot of back pain. >> we have a lot of good players on our teamlosing gronk won't make things easy. >> we have a lot of good players on our team. >> brady said even without gronk they will not give up on trying to take home another super bowl championship. >>> the patriots have played 22 games without gronkowski since he came into the league in 2010 in. those games, the team has had some success, 15 and 7. jim smith picks up our coverage outside of gillette. >> reporter: four super bowl championships can be a confidence booster. that's why despite the bad news on gronk, fans here still think their team has a good shot at a championship. still your upset to