You think you know Baby Gronk? The untold story of viral youth football star's double life.

PONDER, Texas – On football fields and his social media platforms, America’s most notorious eighth grader dresses and plays the swaggy role of his choreographed alter ego, Baby Gronk.

But here in his family’s two-story Ponder home he is Madden San Miguel. Polite. Blingless. Straight-A student. Son of a pre-K teacher. Best bud big brother to 9-year-old sister Maguire.

Welcome to Madden’s, aka Baby Gronk’s, reality TV-like double life. Often outlandish. Yet also normal. Set in a rural town of 2,900, about 40 miles north of Fort Worth. Decide for yourself which parts are real or play-acted.

“I’m a down-to-earth kid, very humble, just trying to work,” 14-year-old Madden says. “There’s social media, then there’s me.

“Big difference.”

Starkly so, though sometimes, for the sake of the brand, Madden and Baby Gronk overlap.

Many of Baby Gronk’s 1.47 million Instagram and TikTok followers and YouTube subscribers know he’s been demolishing peer-age football opponents, tricking out, making WWE-like boasts and amassing likes and video impressions since age 6.

It’s happened against the headwind of also-viral public blowback. That, too, was anticipated in the master plan of Jake San Miguel, father of Madden and Maguire and unabashed creator of Baby Gronk.

Former high school football standout Jake did, after all, purposely name his son, born Aug. 3, 2012, after Hall of Fame coach John Madden and his eponymic video game. He later adopted his moniker from former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.

“We’re real big on manifestation,” Jake says. “Everything we’ve done so far was manifested.

“I’m aiming for him to be the highest-earning NIL football player that’s ever been. We’re getting everything stocked and loaded, getting his name up there for that signing day and first year of college.”

Never mind Madden is three games into his eighth-grade season at Ponder Junior High. And though he’s being unofficially recruited – attending last week’s Georgia home game and scheduled to visit Oklahoma State this past weekend – it’s for the Class of 2031.

Assessing college sports’ name, image and likeness horizon, with some athletes already earning seven figures annually, Jake equates Madden to a popular child actor whose foreseeable path has much potential – but also landmines.

Pausing, with Madden standing next to him, Jake adds a pronouncement.

“He’ll either be the greatest story ever – or the biggest bust.”

Madden appears unfazed.

“That’s on the money,” he says.

Falling in love with the hate

Solely based on Baby Gronk’s platform size and his dominance as a 5-11, 170-pound receiver, running back, linebacker and safety, Jake’s structured training and nutrition regimens and his relentless promotion seem to be working.

But the over-the-top, look-at-us approach has made father and son polarizing figures, inducing extreme reactions. Amusement and appalment. Fascination and scorn. Anticipation for Baby Gronk’s high school varsity years and concern for his well-being.

What happens if he is, in fact, a bust?

In 2023, ESPN personality Pat McAfee called the Baby Gronk phenomenon and inflated expectations a troubling example of what’s wrong with social media, adding, “It feels like we’re staring down a bad situation.”

Jake’s takeaway: Criticism from McAfee and others creates all the more Baby Gronk buzz. Whether the noise is positive or negative scarcely matters, father often reminds son, so long as it’s loud.

“I’ve taught him how to fall in love with the hate,” Jake says. “Because I mean, dude, if they don’t know who you are, they’re not gonna like you or hate you – because nobody knows you exist.”

Are The Dallas Morning News and other publications being complicit in fanning the Baby Gronk inferno? Wouldn’t it be more responsible if everyone ignored it until, say, Madden proves himself on the high school varsity level?

Tell that to the 20 million-plus social media consumers who clicked on some version of then-10-year-old Baby Gronk’s 13-second TikTok with LSU gymnast and fellow internet-famous personality Livvy Dunne.

Tell Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire and Oklahoma’s Brent Venables, who follow Baby Gronk on X.

And Georgia’s Kirby Smart, who presumably sanctioned Madden and Jake’s unofficial, unpaid visit to Athens, where Baby Gronk joined official recruits in all parts of the recruiting weekend.

Madden on the field

Jake says numerous college assistants pinged him almost immediately after Madden’s Sept. 1 eighth-grade debut against Decatur, in which he scored four touchdowns and rumbled for more than 250 yards.

The game was played in 560-student Ponder High School’s 1,500-seat stadium. Varsity coach and athletic director Marcus Shulz joined the eighth-grade team’s coaching staff on the sideline.

“Madden’s a good football player,” Shulz told The News that night. “He does what we ask him to do. Runs hard. He’s a kid that sticks up for his teammates, one that stays after practice and does extra work all the time.

“We’re extremely happy he’s a Ponder Lion, for sure.”

The San Miguel family moved from Frisco to Ponder before Madden’s seventh-grade season.

Jake says it was a strategic decision. Ponder moved from Class 3A to 4A this year. The town’s population has doubled in the last decade and is projected to keep growing.

It’s a place that will allow Madden to evolve with a growing program, yet provide a chance to play varsity as a freshman, most likely as a receiver and defensive back.

Madden says he appreciates Ponder because classmates and townspeople treat him normally. Shulz says if anything, teammates feed off the outside attention Madden gets.

“I know people see his publicity, and he’s a bigger kid, but he’s definitely unselfish and wants to win at all costs,” Shulz says. “If he continues to progress and do what he’s supposed to do, he’s definitely a kid that can be out there [next season] on Friday nights.”

In the past 12 months, Madden has grown four inches and gained 30 pounds. The spurt coincides with Madden’s individual training with Robert Hawkins at a secretive Dallas location dubbed The Shed.

Hawkins trains numerous Dallas-area standouts, including Ohio State running back Legend Bey (North Forney); Ole Miss defensive end Landon Barnes (Duncanville); North Forney senior receiver Briceson Thrower Jr.; and North Forney senior linebacker Kobe Jackson.

“I’m faster, more explosive, stronger, everything,” Madden says.

Jake sought Hawkins because of their shared philosophy that Madden not begin weight training until high school. Jackson focuses on plyometrics and VertiMax training.

Madden has progressed from box jumping only 24 inches off one leg to 40 inches. His running speed has increased from 17 mph to 20 mph.

“I’d seen him on YouTube and everywhere else,” Hawkins says of Madden. “When the dad called me, I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be happy to do it because I know you have a lot of haters, a lot of people doubting.'”

The Shed is roughly the size of a two-car garage, with no air conditioning or heating.

“He never complains,” Hawkins says. “Comes in, works hard, doesn’t say a word.”

Despite his growth spurt, Madden no longer towers above all his teammates, as he once did. But he certainly stands out in size and speed and “it” factor. He struck with a 65-yard touchdown on the game’s opening play, ran in the 2-point conversion and recovered the ensuing kickoff.

There was something else: Despite playing both ways and on special teams, between plays he never once put his hands on his hips, knees or top of his helmet. Why?

“It shows weakness,” he says. “If you see a guy with hands on his knees, you can tell he’s tired. You’ve got him.”

Pausing on the field after Ponder’s 44-0 victory, he tells The News his season goal is “to prove everybody wrong and myself right. I’ve got a lot of doubters out there.”

The overlap with Baby Gronk

And the Baby Gronk dimension? That’s exuded with his cleats, which are adorned with images of $100 bills. And his matching neon green gloves. And until recently, his trademark mullet.

Days after the Decatur game, Baby Gronk had the mullet shorn off in a parking lot, naturally captured on tape and shared on his social media platforms.

“Hey, guys, I’m selling my mullet here for a good price,” fresh-cut Baby Gronk told his followers.

Many among his fandom are kids, some no doubt spellbound by his aura, albeit much of it contrived.

How many eighth graders besides Baby Gronk have run routes with CeeDee Lamb and Ja’Marr Chase? Lifted weights with Dak Prescott? Taken selfies with Shaquille O’Neal and Mark Wahlberg?

Certainly Baby Gronk was the only kid who attended the youth football camp of his dream college destination, Ohio State, and afterward had fellow campers line up for his autograph.

When The News returned to Ponder for Madden’s second eighth-grade game Sept. 8, a group of elementary-age boys surrounded the reporter.

Are you a scout? … What do you think of Madden? … Did you see he cut his mullet and is selling it? … I’d pay $170 for it!

Making money as Baby Gronk

About the mullet and the money: Real life decisions or content-driven Baby Gronk mythology?

Jake says the haircut was a signal to college coaches about Madden’s commitment to discipline.

Jake says the mullet remnants are in a Ziploc bag and not actually for sale, though he says his DMs are filled with bids. The highest?

“$200,000,” Jake says.

What?

“Obviously that’s the extreme. There were other offers of $10,000 and $20,000. But we’re not gonna sell. I know people sell their stuff when they’re in need, but we’re not like that.

“It’s a big deal,” he adds. “People have been looking at his hair for seven, eight years. Every celebrity has a change of hairstyle in their career, and that was our time.”

In 2023, Jake told The Athletic that Baby Gronk generates about $100,000 per year. In a podcast interview that year, he said Baby Gronk sometimes makes $30,000 to $40,000 a month.

Jake tells The News the $100,000 figure isn’t accurate but declines to be specific, except to say a youth team organization in Aubrey offered $20,000 for Madden to play on its team this past summer.

When Madden reaches high school, his earning potential will be limited by the fact that Texas is one of just six states that does not allow public high school athletes to accept NIL deals.

“If I wanted to make him a multi-millionaire and a real celebrity and was one of those dads, I’d move to California,” Jake says. “Because we really don’t need football now. But it’s his love and passion, so that’s why I stay here.”

San Miguel’s journey to fatherhood

Perhaps the most cited concern by critics is that Baby Gronk’s inflated profile sets up Madden for an extra-painful fall.

Jake’s says he’s actually fortifying Madden, emotionally and financially, in the event of failure. He says his approach to fatherhood stems from painful experience.

He was born in South Texas, Weslaco, in 1987 to teenage parents, who later that year moved to Prosper. He says his father Rolando was an alcoholic, probably in part due to his father Oscar’s 1979 murder conviction.

Released from the Huntsville state prison in 1987, Oscar joined Rolando in Prosper, where they worked at Mahard Egg Farm. Jake says multiple members of his family were drug dealers in South Texas.

“I didn’t have the perfect role models as a kid,” Jake says. “Really, I’m just trying to break the curse right now.”

Growing up in Prosper, Jake exuded athletic potential. As a Prosper High sophomore he rushed for more than 1,000 yards in 2002 as the Eagles ended a 24-year playoff drought.

The following season he rushed for 1,200 yards in the first six games, but his season and essentially his career ended with an ACL tear at Valley View.

He spiraled emotionally. Began drinking alcohol, followed by drug use. Estimates he got arrested 12 times, including for stealing the Prosper baseball coach’s credit card and for possession of steroids, and says he was shot at multiple times between stints in juvenile detention. Jake’s estimate isn’t far off, according to public records, which don’t include his juvenile offenses.

At age 23, he met Frisco school teacher Elizabeth Hicks. Madden arrived in 2012.

For Baby Gronk followers, Elizabeth is a mystery, unseen and unheard. While The News interviewed Jake and Madden in the San Miguel home, Maguire intently watched and listened, but Elizabeth mostly remained out of view, until being coaxed into a family photo.

“I like to stay hidden,” she says. “I just like to be Mom. It’s more fun.”

Maguire’s goal is to be an actress. Elizabeth says she enjoys seeing her kids excel individually, but what she perhaps most savors is watching them together. Competing in video games. Madden insisting Maguire play quarterback in pickup games.

“They are very close,” Elizabeth says. “When he brings his friends over, he includes her in everything.”

Says Maguire: “He’s the greatest. I love him. He’s super nice.”

Madden at home

Since age 6, Madden has been in the limelight in countless episodes as Baby Gronk.

Pulling a Dodge Ram with a rope and declaring, “I’m the No. 1 kindergartner in the world.”

Getting interviewed at 8 on NFL Network’s Total Access, by which time he had 257,000 Instagram followers.

What the public doesn’t see is Madden in real life, on strict regimen year-round, except during family vacation.

Each evening he does at least 100 pushups, 1,000 rope jumps and burpee pullups on the dip bar in the family living room; then he hangs on the bar for three to five minutes.

To further stretch his odds of getting taller, Madden downs two TruHeight Growth Gummies. He goes to bed early and sleeps at least 10 hours a night, 12 before games.

He eats a lot of eggs, organic rice and six pounds of grass-fed ground beef a week, and before each game he gets treated to a Cracker Barrel steak and baked potatoes.

It seemingly would get monotonous for anyone, let alone a 14-year-old kid whose friends likely are out having fun. Does Madden wonder if he’ll look back someday and wish he’d spent more time being a kid?

Before Madden can answer, Jake, seated next to him, murmurs, “Tell him about the sacrifice and everything else.”

“It’s not really about fun,” Madden says. “When you’re trying to make it, you can sacrifice the first 20 years of life to make it – instead of having to sacrifice later.

“You know, having fun the first 20 years, then sacrificing the rest of your life working a bad job you don’t like.”

There are, however, spoils that come with being Baby Gronk, evidenced during a Madden-guided tour of his bedroom.

An enviable shoe collection. Shaq-signed basketball. Aaron Judge-signed baseball. Matthew Stafford- and Puka Nacua-signed jerseys.

Just a sampling of athletes and celebrities he probably wouldn’t have met if not for Baby Gronk.

“He’s had a life in 14 years that most people won’t see in a lifetime,” Jake says. “If he didn’t do anything else and gave up football, hey, man, he did a whole bunch. He took over the world at age 9.”

For now, the world will continue to watch – some rooting, others jeering – however long the Baby Gronk character lasts. Until, inevitably, there will be only Madden.

____

This story was originally published September 22, 2026 at 5:38 AM.