I didn’t watch the game, but saw the clip of Gronkowski’s blatant late hit on Bills DB White. I am a Pats fan, but that is total bullshit. He should have been ejected. He will be fined and I hope he’s suspended for multiple games. I don’t care how frustrated you are - I have zero tolerance for that shit. He gave the guy a concussion, for fuck’s sake! Extremely disappointing.
Very stupid move by Gronk, but if he does get suspended it’ll probably only be for 1 game. It’s frustrating that he was held repeatedly and it was never called, but there’s no excuse for that ridiculous action. I was surprised he wasn’t ejected.
The current rule is:
Should be:
The Gronk play was dirty as hell. But I almost have more of a problem with the “apology” than the act. It comes across like he’s trying to excuse his action because he was held in the 1st half and it wasn’t called. Give me a friggin’ break.
Right, he gets held like that pretty much constantly without getting the calls.
I think the fumble-touchback rule is at least a century old and the event is rather uncommon. Giving it back to the offense at the spot of the fumble makes no sense. While the ball is in the endzone, it is a live ball and can be recovered for a TD by the offense: if they fail to recover it, they blew it and should not get another chance on that drive. The endzone OoB lines are different from the field-of-play OoB lines and should be treated as such. If you cannot keep control of the ball, you deserve to lose the ball. That is, as long as the defense does not clearly violate the batting-the-ball rule.
Again, not to excuse his actions since there’s no way to excuse a cheap shot like that, but he was held badly on that particular play with no call and it resulted in an interception. I can understand him being pissed right then and there; but it still doesn’t excuse his actions in any way. He did a stupid thing and deserves to be punished. But it’s not as if he was waiting to get back at someone for something that happened in the first half and saw his opportunity.
The Hawks got away with that once vs Detroit. It was obscure enough that neither the players nor (I think) the officials even knew that was disallowed, and only after the game did they conclude that they missed it.
I think they learned their lesson. During last night’s fumble there was no batting. There were sincere attempts from both teams to recover the ball and it was eventually secured but not until it had already gone out of bounds.
It’s not? That’s exactly what it looked like to me.
His apology/explanation literally included the phrase “what am I supposed to do?”.
Maybe its just semantics and nothing more than bad optics, but to me it comes across as someone that needs to get a grip on reality. You don’t jump on the back of someone’s head like that because you’re subconsciously frustrated about a pass interference call.
You shouldn’t jump on the back of someone’s head like that ever, regardless of the provocation.
One-game suspension for Gronk. Seems a little odd that lately a player can get either an ejection or a suspension but not both, but not as odd as getting a suspension for an infraction that didn’t get an ejection.
This time of the year, the rest will do him good, anyway.
Given that Gronk was pushing off too, there shouldn’t be a call, or offsetting penalties at the worst. Gronkowski has always done a lot of pushing off, and that’ll lead to referees not “seeing” penalties against him. If he didn’t give White a shove, there’s no holding on the play at all.
Yeah, he’s a very physical player which is one reason why he’s so good, but consequently he has a tendency toward OPIs, so refs aren’t going to give him the benefit of the doubt when things get handsy.
“Let ‘em play” works both ways, essentially.
akin to biting off a boxing opponent’s ear because you are subconsciously frustrated about losing long-term finances due to repeatedly missed head butting calls
Well…Bengals v Stealers tonight. I sure hope my Bengals are ready to play. Their slim shadow of a wisp of a playoff hope rides on getting to 6-6 just to keep up with the rest of the mediocre “in the hunt” 6-6 potential AFC wildcard teams.
When I look at the NFL’s “Playoff Picture” page, they even list a couple 3-9 AFC teams (Colts, etc) at the bottom of “in the hunt” for a wildcard. WTF? How much crazy shit would have to happen for the Colts to make the playoffs?
Is Benburger past his prime? Or just having a rough day so far?
One game suspension for Gronk is a joke. Coming in from behind, when the guy is already down, slamming his head to the ground, that was dirty as hell and the only purpose was to cause injury. Honestly, my first thought when I saw the video was of Todd Bertuzzi. How is what Gronk did any different? And this is a league that is trying desperately to convince people that it cares about player safety. One game suspension is pathetic, he should be done for the season.
Filthy hit last night by JuJu on Burfict. I know Burfict is a dirty player himself and has some well-deserved suspensions, but hits like the one last night could end a player’s career, or worse. I hope he’s suspended for at least a game. This is also the kind of thing that makes me wonder about Tomlin’s discipline and preparedness as the team heads into the playoffs.
I get the impression that this kind of shit by the Steelers is actively encouraged and coached, with a wink and a sly nod. I’m not joking. There’s too many instances.
I hope Shazier recovers and is okay to play again, but he’s a prime example of what can happen when you lead with your head. He knocked Giovanni Bernard unconscious in the 2015 playoff game with such a hit, and then fucked himself up last night doing the same thing. Keep your head up when you tackle!
Ricardo Lockette was famous for his crazy human canon ball impressions when he’d run down the field at full speed on kickoff/punt coverage, slamming into returners, knocking them on their backs.
Then on one such play he broke his neck and ended his career, and almost his life.
Sometimes when players risk their health to make those crazy plays, they suffer for it.