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.

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 4ft 9in and weighed 88 lb. 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.

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.

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.

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.