The disgusting attacks on Gronk

Honestly until this was brought up i hadn't noticed it as much because of how he is shrugging guys off and dominating but there are some PATHETIC players in this league that are trying to put this man out by going for his knees and i only noticed it once i'd gone back and watched Gronk highlights over the past few weeks

If this is the case and DB's/LB's are making pacts that they are going to go low and hard on this poor guy's knees that have just healed and still is then i wish nothing but serious head injuries on them when they attempt these tackles.

Would love for one of these head hunting players to tear their ACL trying to take out Gronk just so they know how it feels. I bet you they won't try it again once they do find out.

And here people wonder why offensive players are becoming so wrapped in cotton wool when you see acts like this. The Seahawks proved you can play CLEAN, PHYSICAL, LEGIT defense in the NFL last season because rarely did i see a cheap shot or dirty low hit on an opposing by that D so i don't want to hear excuses like 'what are defenses supposed to do'.

It's a disgrace of a tactic and the Bills were clearly at it on Sunday

anytime gronk runs down the middle of the field i hold my breath...

The guy's 6'6", built like a bull, runs high, and doesn't protect himself. How do you want them to tackle him?

primetime said:

The guy's 6'6", built like a bull, runs high, and doesn't protect himself. How do you want them to tackle him?

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For starters he shouldn't run while intoxicated.

primetime said:

The guy's 6'6", built like a bull, runs high, and doesn't protect himself. How do you want them to tackle him?

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Pretty much.

However what do you want to bet that if Gronk was on the Broncos the league would've revisited allowing defenders going low rather that re-re-emphasizing PI and illegal contact.

primetime said:

The guy's 6'6", built like a bull, runs high, and doesn't protect himself. How do you want them to tackle him?

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exactly.......a DB isn't gonna try to form tackle a guy his size.....the DB would get the worse end of the collision.....and they know it......so going low is what they do

this is an issue across the league

defensive players don't want to form tackle unless they are significantly larger than the other player.....or coming at him from an angle.......going into the chest of a bigger guy running straight at you is asking to get trucked

That's a noticeable thing I'm seeing as well. The only way to stop Gronk is to try to go for his knees nowadays. It's a disconcerting thing to see. I blame the league for all these way-too-low hits. The players are just doing what they being forced to do, so we can't fault them only. This is Goodell's new NFL and things are not going to change.

Thankfully, I've noticed that Rob has made a concious effort to lower himself when people are aiming for his knee area. He still takes big devastating hits but he has been doing a better job of protecting himself down low, more so than he did in the past. He's such a tough player, and I love watching him dominate, but I get scared every time he gets hit because you just never know.

I hold my breath yesterday right after his TD that the refs called a ghost holding, the next play Brady threw a short pass to him and while he was running he got tackled in the leg right when he planted his foot on the ground, exactly like in the Ward tackle, he got lucky in that play.

He's getting his confidence back and running wild again, I said before the season and I'll reinstate that I would like him to play soft sometimes, make the catch and get safe yacs, without getting into a battle for 2 or 3 yards with 3 DB's climbing him.

To be fair, McCourty could have wrecked Scott Chandler both knees in a play in the middle of the field, he went low and at full speed, these rules sucks.

primetime said:

The guy's 6'6", built like a bull, runs high, and doesn't protect himself. How do you want them to tackle him?

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Leading with your helmet and launching yourself at a player is not a tackle in my book.

People can blame league officials for rule changes etc. but the simple fact is most players have no ****ing clue how to tackle preferring to hit a player instead. A secondary notion is I'm damn well sure if the players tackled properly, the instances of concussion would probably decrease.

Ozymandias said:

That's a noticeable thing I'm seeing as well. The only way to stop Gronk is to try to go for his knees nowadays. It's a disconcerting thing to see. I blame the league for all these way-too-low hits. The players are just doing what they being forced to do, so we can't fault them only. This is Goodell's new NFL and things are not going to change.

Thankfully, I've noticed that Rob has made a concious effort to lower himself when people are aiming for his knee area. He still takes big devastating hits but he has been doing a better job of protecting himself down low, more so than he did in the past. He's such a tough player, and I love watching him dominate, but I get scared every time he gets hit because you just never know.

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So how should they tackle. Throw themself head first into the receivers head? Because that's what the rules say you can't do. That's probably even worse.


Gronk is big and runs hard. I think it's understandable that defenders go low on him. That's the best way to bring someone like him down. But defenders could do a better job and aim at his hip instead of his knees and wrap up there.. Like the Seahawks.

Ozymandias said:

That's a noticeable thing I'm seeing as well. The only way to stop Gronk is to try to go for his knees nowadays. It's a disconcerting thing to see. I blame the league for all these way-too-low hits. The players are just doing what they being forced to do, so we can't fault them only. This is Goodell's new NFL and things are not going to change.

Thankfully, I've noticed that Rob has made a concious effort to lower himself when people are aiming for his knee area. He still takes big devastating hits but he has been doing a better job of protecting himself down low, more so than he did in the past. He's such a tough player, and I love watching him dominate, but I get scared every time he gets hit because you just never know.

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I've noticed Gronk trying to get lower too, but he's just so big, he's still taking those shots.

He's to valuable to loose. Right up there with Brady and Revis.

Are you kidding? They're just trying to do their job and bring the man down. What's more, they're doing it legally. Maybe they should just embrace him and whisper sweet nothings into his ear until he voluntarily goes to the ground? It sucks, but we are just going to have to live with shots at Gronk's knees as long as he and Brady are burning defenses up the seam.

I think going low is fine if you at least attempt to wrap up the guys legs. If you are going all T.J. Ward, D.J. Swearinger missile and dive through a person's knees, then I have less respect for that type of hit.

Did Ronnie Lott tackle like that?

I honestly think they can't bring him down any other way. The guy is huge and athletic. I can't even imagine what it's gotta be like to bring down that lumbering rhino. I'd like to see Gronk wearing a brace on both knees and both elbows like a cyborg or better yet, just infuse his skeleton with adamantium just like Wolverine! There probably is no good solution but the knee brace should probably be permanent and one for the other knee preemptively wouldn't be a bad idea.

primetime said:

The guy's 6'6", built like a bull, runs high, and doesn't protect himself. How do you want them to tackle him?

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Umm, how about you perform a form tackle around the waist or wrap up around the thighs,either way the man will go down. The proper way to tackle is head up, and use the power of your own legs to thrust your body into the opponents mid section wrapping up either the waist or legs.

The new way of "tackling" is to have your head down, thrusting your shoulder into a player's knee. Three things can happen from that:

1) Ball carrier's knee gets blown out (which happens most often)
2) Tackler gets a concussion or even worse yet, paralyzed (it will happen unfortunately)

3) Tackler gets hurdled, missing the tackle completely because he's looking down.

Unfortunately for Gronk last year and Ridley this year, it was #1. And unfortunately for Mayo, he got hurt making a perfect form tackle. Here's the hit that took out Ridley, notice the launch head perpendicular to the ground, no attempt to wrap up, if you wrap up, the knee takes less of the brunt of the hit. I'm sure he wasn't trying to injure, but when you launch your shoulder pads directly at a knee at high speed, odds are, it'll blow out someone's knee.

I went to the Cleveland game last year where Gronk got wiped out. A few days later I was sat in a bar in Times Square cursing this fad about going for the knees. Guy next to me pointed out that it was the leagues fault as they want guys to do that at is makes them move away from the head (concussion ect)

There will be plenty of guys having their careers ruined in the future. Only good thing I can say is at least they have their money and won't be mental wrecks like Jim McMahon

Helmets need to be redesigned. Most concussions and many acl injuries nowadays are caused by helmets, defeating the point of them. The outside shell should be softer, maybe they should offer a bit less protection (so you think twice before using it as a weapon), or probably better yet, they should be designed to crush on impact like bike helmets are --- so the helmet takes the blow instead of the person on the receiving end. You'd need multiple helmets per game if they got crushed during impact plays, but that beats getting concussions and season ending injuries

voluntarysaftey said:

Helmets need to be redesigned. Most concussions and many acl injuries nowadays are caused by helmets, defeating the point of them. The outside shell should be softer, maybe they should offer a bit less protection (so you think twice before using it as a weapon), or probably better yet, they should be designed to crush on impact like bike helmets are --- so the helmet takes the blow instead of the person on the receiving end. You'd need multiple helmets per game if they got crushed during impact plays, but that beats getting concussions and season ending injuries

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If the helmet was no longer a weapon. defenders wouldn't lead with it, since they'd only be hurting themselves. Except for big bang clock, who doesn't have a brain left to damage anyway.

How does Graham manage to rarely get hurt? He's a similar sized body.

primetime said:

The guy's 6'6", built like a bull, runs high, and doesn't protect himself. How do you want them to tackle him?

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By using textbook tackling. You attack the center of gravity (the waist) and wrap up tightly. Even if you don't take him down, you slow him up enough that other players will finish him off.