Tre'Davious White: Rob Gronkowski 'Could Have Broken My Neck'
Bills cornerback Tre'Davious White thinks a mere one-game suspension for Rob Gronkowski's post-play hit on him during Sunday's Bills-Patriots game is not sufficient.
"Man, it's a joke, dog," White said, per ESPN.com's Mike Rodak. "Man, I don't know what to say on that. I'm laying there. He snuck me with my back turned. He could have broke my neck. I mean, I got a son to raise. All that. People don't think about that when they just react."
During the fourth quarter of New England's 23-3 victory over Buffalo, Gronkowski lunged his body onto White, who was laying on the ground after securing an interception, because he was frustrated that White was not flagged for a pass interference penalty. Gronkowski was flagged for a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty for the late hit.
After the game, Gronkowski told reporters that he wanted to apologize to White.
“First of all, I definitely want to apologize to number 27,” Gronkowski told reporters after the game. “I’m not in the business of that. There was a lot of frustration. I was just really frustrated at that moment and it just happened naturally through emotions and frustrations. I just want to apologize to Tre'Davious White. I don’t really believe in any types of shots like that but just through the frustration process -- the game of football -- emotions, (it's) what happened.”
White said that Gronkowski hadn't reached out to him personally.
White isn't the only NFL player to take issue with the brevity of Gronkowski's ban. Steelers safety Mike Mitchell expressed disbelief that his teammate, JuJu Smith-Schuster, received the same one-game suspension for a helmet-to-helmet hit made during a play, while Gronkowski's hit came after the whistle.
The NFL is reportedly considering implementing a discipline protocol for "non-football acts," a denotation that Gronkowski's hit would have fallen under, per NFL.com's Judy Battista.
