Post by Admin on Dec 10, 2017 11:31:31 GMT -5
Does Rob Gronkowski have a gripe about officials' calls?
Karen Guregian
Photo Credit: Christopher Evans
Rob Gronkowski momentarily lost his mind last Sunday, as he made like a WWE star and slammed his forearm into the back of cornerback Tre’Davious White’s head during the Patriots’ game against the Buffalo Bills.
While Gronk, who received a one-game suspension for delivering the late hit, claimed his actions were born out of frustrations over calls being made against him, as well as non-calls on opposing players attempting to cover him, there was no excuse for his behavior. There is no justification for taking a cheap shot at a defenseless player. None.
That said, does the Patriots all-world tight end have a gripe? Putting aside the crime, do officials need to hear him out a little more? Or should Gronk put a sock in it? Just shut up and play.
Former NFL official Jim Daopoulos, a rules analyst for ESPN, sided with Gronk when we sought his view on the subject. He thinks the Patriots star has a legitimate beef. He said he’s watched Gronkowski basically get rough-housed all season long, while also being called for ticky-tack penalties himself.
“He gets manhandled out there because he’s a big, tough kid. Then he gets called for these really piddly fouls. I think the officials become intimidated out there with the way he plays. They anticipate he’s committing fouls. For the most part, he does not,” Daopoulos told the Herald Wednesday. “He’s an aggressive player. He gets called (for penalties) on plays he shouldn’t get called on.”
Daopoulos served 12 years as the NFL’s supervisor of officials, so that’s an interesting take when a former man in pinstripes sides with the player.
While he doesn’t condone what Gronk did, he understands the frustration. He watched the Buffalo game, and sounded just as upset over the officiating.
“There’s no question, Gronk was fouled three times on that one play. There were three separate penalties that should have been called against Buffalo. But they didn’t call them,” Daopoulos said, alluding to the White interception, which culminated with Gronkowski snapping. “But again, that doesn’t give him the justification to do what he did. That was an egregious act that should have brought an ejection.”
It’s Daopoulos’ belief if Gronk had been ejected, he probably would have gotten a fine and not a suspension.
Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe said he was disappointed by Gronkowski’s actions. Hearing the Patriots tight end blame the cheap shot on being frustrated by the officials calls didn’t sit well with the three-time Super Bowl winner, who is now on the Fox Sports 1 debate show “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed.”
“Gronk, let me tell you something, I played 14 years, I got held. I got a few calls, some they missed. You move on. You go to the next play,” Sharpe told the Herald last week. “No one is going to get every call. I can assure you, you don’t think some of those defenders don’t think Gronk pushes off? And he does. Sometimes they call it, sometimes they don’t. But that’s football. It’s a great game, but it’s an imperfect game. The officials aren’t perfect. Gronk’s not perfect. The defenders aren’t perfect.
“But he’s a hell of a ball player. And he has to play through that, and I think he’s good enough to do that.”
Gronkowski has still had a terrific season, even with smaller defenders clutching, grabbing, doing whatever they can get away with to try and stop him. He leads the team with 55 catches for 849 yards with seven touchdowns.
“That just goes to show how talented he is,” Sharpe said. “I get the frustration. What got Gronk upset is that the guy (White) held him from the start of the snap, to the middle of the snap, to the end of the snap, the officials didn’t call it, and then he got a pick. So now you’ve got the trifecta.
“That’s why Gronk lashed out like he did. But you can’t act like that. That was an egregious act.”
Going forward, Daopoulos believes Gronk should just be Gronk and play how he plays. But he should also get a better handle on the officials, and learn their tendencies.
“Players have to learn the characteristics of the officials. They keep talking about consistency of officiating, but the players have to understand who’s officiating the game, what those guys are going to call,” Daopoulos said. “(Gronkowski) has to know if he’s extending his arms when he goes and makes contact with somebody, then he’s going to get called for a penalty. And if he doesn’t extend his arms, and they call him for a penalty, well, so be it. They’re going to miss it. They miss calls in that league. They’re not perfect. He just has to adjust to it. I don’t think there’s an easy answer. He just has to understand who’s officiating, and what they’re going to call.”
That’s one element of the Gronkowski incident in Buffalo, the officiating oversights and misjudgments, and how Gronk should deal with it going forward. But there’s also the fallout from the cheap shot.
There’s been a lot of chatter in the days since about possible retribution. Bills legend and Hall of Famer Jim Kelly was critical of his team for not going after Gronkowski immediately after the incident, while former NFL safety Ryan Clark, speaking on “The Russillo Show” on ESPN radio, said Bills players would be eager to avenge Gronk’s late hit on White from the first meeting.
Former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison saw that as a distinct possibility going forward.
“Not only did Gronk give a cheap shot to one of their key players but the Pats knocked them out of the playoffs too. (It) adds insult to injury,” Harrison wrote via text to the Herald. “I would think Gronk coming over the middle, look for them taking shots at the knees of these WRs. They would like nothing better than to send the Pats to (the) playoffs missing one of their key guys.”
Even Sharpe thinks the Bills will be out for blood when the teams play again at Foxboro on Christmas Eve.
“They saw it was such an egregious act, they’ll try and get back at him,” Sharpe said of Gronkowski. “But for me, I just hope he learns from this. It’s a very teachable moment that no matter how frustrated or upset you might get, if someone does something to you, whether you’re being held, or Tom (Brady) throws a pick in front of you, that’s no reason to act like that. We’ve all been frustrated. You can’t do what he did.
“If I’m Gronk, I’m going to play my game. It’s been too great for me. I’ve been too successful playing the way I play for me to alter my game. The only thing he needs to alter, is when he’s frustrated, not do what he did. Other than that, I’ve got no qualms with the way Gronk plays the game.”
That Monday mayhem
With regard to the Bengals-Steelers slugfest Monday night, which was an ugly affair filled with penalties and cheap shots, the game clearly got out of hand. Players from both sides were suspended after the fact for cheap shots and dirty hits.
Daopoulos believes officials should have ejected several players on the spot, namely the Steelers’ JuJu Smith-Schuster, and the Bengals’ George Iloka, both of whom delivered helmet-to-helmet hits. Only, refs are afraid to do so.
“There should have been a lot of ejections in that game. Officials are afraid to throw players out of the game. The league does not want the officials to be throwing players out because of the competitiveness of the games,” Daopoulos said. “They want the players to stay in the game. If it’s egregious enough, they’ll suspend them later on . . . It was disgusting watching that game. That’s not how football is supposed to be played.”
During a conference call with the media Wednesday, Troy Vincent, the NFL’s vice president of football operations, was asked if there was a hesitation to throw out players.
“Frankly, we all share in that responsibility. There was a time, and there still is, where we want the game to be played on the field. We don’t want to be in the business of ejecting players — that is something the coaches are adamant about, the GMs and owners are adamant about, not ejecting players during the season,” Vincent said. “There are only 17 weeks and the philosophy is, if it gets out of control, we ask the referees to maintain control of the game and give them that flexibility. They have that flexibility. We really emphasize ‘let the players play,’ but if things begin to get out of control, you must maintain control of the game during that window.”
During the same conference call, Vincent said the league would look into the possibility of adding a targeting rule along the lines of the one in college football.
It’s on the agenda to discuss with the competition committee and the players’ union after the season.
“I think it is something that we have to consider. We’ve seen that it has worked to a certain degree in college,” Vincent said. “It’s clean. That play is a reviewable play at the collegiate level. We think there have been some positives and we have talked to some of the conferences and the officials there, as well as with some student-athletes. It is a deterrent and something that we will consider. It is one of our agenda items to discuss during the offseason as we speak to the coaches and the competition committee.”
The Jimmy G hysteria
One start, one 15-14 comeback victory over the Bears, and fans in San Francisco have started to compare Jimmy Garoppolo to Joe Montana.
Naturally, Jimmy G applied the brakes.
“The Joe Montana comparisons, I think it’s a little early for those. It’s only been one game,” Garoppolo told the Mercury News.
“We are both Italian, so we have that in common,” Garoppolo added. “But it might be a little early. We’ve got a good thing going right now, we have to keep working hard, keep improving every week and keep this thing going in the right direction.”
Garoppolo has a chance today to match Elvis Grbac (1995) and Jim Plunkett (1976) as the only 49ers quarterbacks to win their first two starts on the road, as he’ll be under center when the 49ers visit the Texans.
Coach Kyle Shanahan certainly understands the hype surrounding Garoppolo, who the 49ers acquired in an Oct. 31 trade with the Patriots.
“I love that excitement, and it’s deserving in that you should be excited we have a talented guy,” Shanahan said.
“But you also want to be fair to Jimmy. You said the words ‘Joe Montana.’ It was his third NFL game really playing (as a NFL starter). That’s the goal. We’re excited about him. That’s the goal. Hopefully, someday we can get to there. But let’s take it one game at a time.”
www.bostonherald.com/sports/patriots/2017/12/guregian_does_rob_gronkowski_have_a_gripe_about_officials_calls