New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski tried to empathize with Myles Garrett, the Cleveland Browns defense end who ripped off quarterback Mason Rudolph’s helmet and swung it at him.
The response all over the internet was that of condemnation. NFL players are paid millions of dollars to navigate a razor-thin line of controlled violence and blind rage. Garrett crossed that line. And yet Gronkowski said he felt he could relate to what happened to the young defensive end.
“I’ve never seen something like this and it’s just not made for the game of football. It was ugly,” Gronkowski said Sunday on FOX. “You got to look at all the circumstances. I’ve had a similar situation happen to me like this before. I kind of would call it like a blackout, you just blackout on the field. It was when I was playing the Buffalo Bills and it was vs. Tre’Davious White. I got held three times in the play, I was getting held throughout the whole season.
“That frustration finally came to me right there on the spot. He made the interception on the play, I got held about three times on that same play and I just got up and I was frustrated. Like, I just blacked out and I was furious. I was running after him like the play was still going on and I went down and the second I went down, the second I brought the elbow right to his neck, head area I said, ‘Oh no. What am I doing? This isn’t me.’ The follow-through went through, it happened. But I knew right at that second, it wasn’t me.”
