Baby Gronk

Madden San Miguel (born November 4, 2012), better known by his nickname, Baby Gronk, is an American youth football player and social media personality.

San Miguel's father Jake San Miguel, who claims to have master-planned his son's life prior to his birth, trained him for a career in the National Football League (NFL) while the boy was still in elementary school, micromanaging his diet and exercise. Due to his enormous size, San Miguel was nicknamed "Baby Gronk" in honor of football player Rob Gronkowski. Wanting for him and his son to go viral, Jake, a digital marketer, promoted his son's football skills online, leading to him amassing a large social media following in the early 2020s. Jake frequently shepherded his son across the country, meeting with high-profile celebrities and universities.

In March 2023, San Miguel met Louisiana State University social media personality and gymnast Olivia Dunne; videos of the interaction were posted on San Miguel's social media. A TikTok video commentating on the incident subsequently went viral in June, and Jake received extensive backlash, largely in regards to the sexually explicit marketing of the interaction and general dislike over his creation of the cuteness Baby Gronk persona.

Madden San Miguel was born on November 4, 2012, in Frisco, Texas, United States. His father, Jake San Miguel, named him after the football coach and commentator, John Madden.

Jake played football in his youth, having been a running back in high school and playing for Emporia State University, but claimed that "drugs got in the way" of him playing at the higher level. Jake spent much of his life in and out of prison and his father was imprisoned for murder. Jake stated in 2022 that he sought to "break the family curse" with Madden. Jake has stated that he planned out San Miguel's life prior to his birth, claiming to have had a blueprint for his son's life at ages 15–16. In a TMZ interview in 2023, he stated that his goal was for his son to become a millionaire by his son’s senior year of high school "with or without football."

San Miguel became involved in football during pre-school at age 5, after seeing football videos on YouTube. San Miguel has been noted for his immense size; in 2021, at age 9, he was 4 ft 9 in (145 cm) and weighed 88 pounds (40 kg). The question regarding origin of the nickname "Baby Gronk" has been answered with conflicting accounts; in 2021, San Miguel stated that the nickname was coined by classmates during recess while they were chasing him, while Jake alleged in the same year that it came from when he was visiting San Miguel's school and saw that he had an adult chair instead of a children's chair. Later, in 2022, San Miguel stated the moniker was coined by his father after he dragged his opponents in a game to the end zone after a reception. The term is an homage to Rob Gronkowski, an NFL tight end. Jake oversaw San Miguel's early football career, carefully managing his nutrition; he was put on a diet of chicken, rice, yogurt, oatmeal, and apples, and his fitness was also rigorously monitored. San Miguel hopes to head to the NFL.

Jake, a digital marketer, promoted his son's feats online, primarily Instagram. By August 2020, San Miguel's account on Instagram had amassed 100 thousand followers, including San Miguel's favorite player, Ezekiel Elliott, then running back for the Dallas Cowboys and whom San Miguel met while in kindergarten, as well as other NFL players such as George Kittle, and Aqib Talib. San Miguel's internet fame garnered the attention of rapper Boosie, who signed the boy to his marketing and sports management group in May 2020.

Jake frequently utilized the attention his son received to shepherd him throughout universities across the United States, obtaining the attention of many who sought to recruit the boy. In 2021, San Miguel verbally committed to the University of Oregon.

In 2021, San Miguel was highlighted in a Sports Illustrated interest story by Bri Amaranthus titled "Meet 'Baby Gronk': The 8-Year-Old Football Celebrity and Cowboys Friend." The piece opens by describing a scene where San Miguel exits a lamborghini with a "Baby Gronk" diamond chain, exclaiming "I don't play football because I love it, I play for the money!" The article noted that for all the antics San Miguel played on camera, he was a comparatively normal boy of his age in real life, believing that girls have cooties and liking to beat his friends in video games.

Rendezvous with Olivia Dunne

Jake's enormous propagation of San Miguel online led to him accumulating an additional half a million followers across all social media platforms by June 2023. Writing for The Guardian, Lauren Mechling dubbed San Miguel as "a Zelig figure in the world of sports." San Miguel continued to interact with public figures including Shaquille O'Neal and Mark Wahlberg.

On March 15, 2023, Jake posted a video on San Miguel's social media pages, where the latter met with Olivia Dunne, a prominent social media influencer and member of the Louisiana State University (LSU) gymnastics team. Jake alleged that they were able to connect via mutual friends. In the video, Dunne (nicknamed Livvy), clad in a crop top, pulls San Miguel towards her for a hug. Mechling described San Miguel as visibly awkward, if not flat-out uncomfortable, attributing it to his belief in cooties. In the video, Dunne convinces San Miguel to commit to LSU. Two days later, on March 17, Henry de Tolla, a 21-year-old lacrosse player at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, known by his internet alias of h00pify, released a video on TikTok about the rendezvous, adding his own commentary and proclaiming that "Livvy rizzed him up."

Months later, after the video was reposted on Twitter, the video went viral, amassing 3.4 million views by July. De Tolla's video itself received some backlash, with many mocking his delivery, with him staring into the camera unblinkingly while speaking in a monotone yet enthusiastic cadence. Some were also confused by the immense use of slang in the video, questioning their age and sanity. In an interview with NBC News, de Tolla himself admitted that the video was "silly," stating that "If you don't know what these words mean, it just sounds like I'm speaking gibberish almost." The video spawned a series of memes on the internet, with many heralding Baby Gronk as the new "rizz king," having stolen Olivia Dunne from "the drip king."

On July 6, Jake posted to San Miguel's Instagram, proclaiming that San Miguel had committed to LSU. The post was deleted shortly after, with Jake taking to Twitter to state that the graphic designer who made the image used in the post had confused which team he was actually committing to. Subsequently, a new post was made, indicating that he was going to the University of Oklahoma.

Subsequent backlash

Though Dunne herself did not actually flirt with, or "rizz" San Miguel, the inherently sexual marketing of the collaboration resulted in a massive backlash, with Jake being lambasted for letting his son be embraced by Dunne. The controversy finally precipitated a massive wave of criticism towards the Baby Gronk persona and in particular Jake, who was widely criticised for monetarily using his son for internet content and stage parenting.

The Baby Gronk persona came under fire in particular from many in the sports world. Former Arizona Cardinals player J. J. Watt, responding to a Twitter user asking for his opinion on the situation, stated that "kids should play multiple sports and kids should be allowed to be kids... no kid should be playing one sport all year & no kid should be training 'like a pro' until at least HS." Chris Long, a former NFL defensive end, denounced Jake's marketing of San Miguel, stating on his Green Light, "I have no problem with profiting off the internet, this is what we're all doing. But the difference is we're not using a 10-year-old kid to do it," before expressing worry on how this will affect San Miguel's development.

In response to the pushback, Jake dismissed his critics as "haters." When questioned on the criticism he received following the incident, Jake attributed it to older generations being out of touch, stating "It's a new era, it's a new generation ... The people that are normally jealous of us is kinda older. They just don't get it. The times have changed – Elon Musk about to move us to Mars." In spite of the rampant castigation by those in the sports world, Jake continued to contact many players and sports commentators, asking to collaborate, including social media influencer and former collegiate golfer Paige Spiranac.

The controversy intensified after an April 14 episode of the Bring the Juice podcast featuring San Miguel and his father went viral. Social media commentators focused particularly on a segment of the episode in which Jake feeds his son answers to questions including whether he would take Dunne to prom. After resurfacing via a tweet on June 13, the clip led to Jake garnering more backlash.

On June 18, a post was made on Baby Gronk's Instagram, declaring that he had retired from football. Writing for The Irish Times, Dave Hannigan ridiculed the move, remarking "A kid fooling around online or serious brand pivot by a father worried about how much the world is appalled at his child exploitation? Truth or scared? Doesn't matter. Still went viral." In spite of the announcement, the controversy persisted. On June 28, while appearing at Tight End University, Rob Gronkowski revealed that Jake had contacted him 500 times in the month prior while on Will Compton and Taylor Lewan's podcast. Gronkowski denounced the fad as annoying, and having "gone too far," and when Lewan later suggested that as the eponym behind San Miguel's moniker, he was the only one capable of putting an end to the Baby Gronk promotion, Gronkowski proceeded to threaten a cease and desist order against Jake.

In reaction to the situation, many highlighted the Baby Gronk fiasco as an exemplary instance of what Mechling described as the "sports dad," stating "San Miguel Sr is the viral, outsize iteration of the parent on the sideline who screams at his kid, his kid's teammate, the kid on the other team, or even a fellow parent. He can't let his kid figure his own life out for himself." Baby Gronk was illustrated as the personification behind the increasing trend of American parents forcing their children to commit much of their youth to sports, largely as a way to combat the record low acceptance rates of universities in the United States. The dynamic between San Miguel and his father was frequently compared to the plight of various other athletes who also faced immense pressure from their parents, most frequently the relationship between Tiger Woods and Earl Woods.