Watch Rob Gronkowski awkwardly answer questions about deflate-gate

The timing wasn't great for New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski's media tour for "Madden NFL 16."

He and New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham are the two finalists to be on the cover of the video game. And what else could be going on with the NFL in mid-May that would cause some uncomfortable moments during interviews promoting the cover vote?

Oh, right.

So Gronkowski and Beckham got on the SportsCenter set and, go figure, the anchors wanted to ask about deflate-gate, Tom Brady and the punishments for Brady and the New England Patriots.

Gronkowski isn't exactly an orator, and he couldn't flex away the questions live on set. That made for some awkward television with a guy who obviously didn't want to talk about it (the video is from SportsGrid):

Now that is some really uncomfortable television. You can see Gronk trying to get out of it, which doesn't work, even when his "it is what it is" attempts. Even more awkward might be when Beckham is asked, because what's he going to say?

When a probing question about if he likes the balls more or less inflated ("Whoa these are a lot of questions! I thought we were here for the cover vote," Gronkowski said later in the interview after more questions) Gronk just tried the eject button again.

"I have no clue what the difference is," Gronkowski said.

Get ready for plenty of this kind of answer by any Patriots – non-answers that are at times cringe-worthy. But the Patriots players aren't going to get into any deep discussion about this. When was the last time any of them did about any sticky subject? That's not the Patriot Way.

"Literally I have not a thing to do with what's going on and I just have full support in Tom," Gronkowski said, with a touch of desperation in his voice to change the subject.

Gronkowski is incredible on the field and very entertaining off it, but don't expect him to be the team's spokesman in the future when it comes to deflate-gate.

- - - - - - -

Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab