Retired New England Patriots tight end and current FOX NFL analyst Rob Gronkowski knew what Myles Garrett was going through on Thursday night.
Garrett received an indefinite suspension for swinging a helmet at Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph’s head last week. The violent episode caused a brawl on Thursday Night Football in Week 11. While Garrett’s actions were unquestionably wrong and disgusting, the Cleveland Browns defensive end will begin to work to reclaim his good name — much like Gronkowski did.
Gronk was suspended one game for driving his forearm into the head of Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White, who went to the ground after an interception. Despite a whistle blowing the play dead, Gronk slammed White. Though it was an egregiously awful play, it was one of the few dirty plays from the tight end’s career.
“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 verses 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.”
There’s no excuse for what Gronk or Garrett did. But it’s certainly interesting to hear from players what they were thinking before they made terrible decisions.
