Gronkowski Suspended for One Game; NFL Continues Allowing Lawless Players

Rob Gronkowski always seemed like a big harmless guy until Sunday in Buffalo when he decided to physically assault a Bills player who was laying defenseless on the ground. Roger Goodell responded with a slap on the wrist suspension of one-game. If Goodell really wants to clean up the game, a strong Gronkowski suspension would have been the perfect chance to do so, with a high-profile player who obviously crossed the line.

What if it had been Vontaze Burfict?

Burfict does this and he would be called a thug and suspended multiple games, maybe the rest of the season. Of course, the NFL doesn’t want to suspend a marquee player for his transgressions and while it is true Burfict has had multiple incidents it would be hard to find a Burfict personal foul as bad as hitting a defenseless man on the ground for no reason. The NFL seems to have a double standard at play here and it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has watched the NFL for any length of time.

Why didn’t A.J. Green get suspended?

A.J. Green hit Jalen Ramsey when he wasn’t looking which started a brawl a few weeks ago in Jacksonville, the NFL responded by suspending neither player. Aqib Talib and Michael Crabtree carried a grudge onto the field a couple weeks ago and the NFL responded by suspending both players for two games. Now in my opinion and I think many others what Gronkowski did hitting a defenseless player was far worse than Talib and Crabtree. I do think for being general idiots Crabtree and Talib’s two-game suspension was fair, but nobody got hurt in the brawl that ensued. Gronkowski hit a defenseless man while he was down and actually injured that player! What am I missing here? Don’t tell me Talib and Crabtree had an incident before, once again Gronk injured a player and that player is now in concussion protocol.

What should Roger Goodell do?

This is simple suspend any player that hits and injures a defenseless player for four games! I guarantee you if that would have happened to Gronkowski the rates of these incidents would drop dramatically. Instead we will continue to see players starting fights and blind siding other players until either the Commissioner grows some balls or until a player gets seriously hurt because of one of these cheap shots.