New England Patriots: 5 observations from win over Bills

Gronk’s Cheap Shot

I’m going to start with the one thing everyone is talking about from this game. That was Rob Gronkowski’s cheap shot on Bills defender Tre’Davious White. The hit came after Gronk was held in the secondary and Tom Brady threw an interception while targeting him.

White was laying on the ground, getting ready to get up after his pick when Gronk ran up and quite literally Gronk spiked him into the ground. White’s head was hit and he would leave the game to enter the league’s concussion protocol.

Basically, there are two trains of thought circulating in the Twittersphere right now. The first is that Gronk was getting held throughout the entire play and he was justified in lashing out at White.

The second common opinion is that what Gronk did is absolutely unacceptable. He hit a player with an apparent intent to injure, and White could have been seriously, seriously injured.

In my opinion, these two schools of thought are not mutually exclusive.

"When asked about the play, Gronk apologized, saying “I’m not in the business of that. There was a lot of frustration, and I was just really frustrated at that moment. It just happened naturally through emotions, frustration.”"

Gronk is not in the wrong to be frustrated. He is the victim of more no-calls than anyone in the NFL, and building up frustration is a natural and warranted response. However, that hit was dirty and unacceptable. End of story. Let’s leave it at that.