Oh please. This isn't about whether Gronk tackled someone just before or just after the whistle. When the whistle blew is completely irrelevant here. White was OOB, lying down, and defenseless, and Gronk clobbered him in the head. That was a dirty cheapshot whether it was before or after the whistle and deserved a suspension either way.
I agree the hit was excessive. No whistle was blown so the runner was deemed "live." There is no whistle blown on the cable feed until
after Gronk took his cheap shot.
I am not defending the nature of the hit, but it occurred during a
LIVE football play as officiated on field. The circumstances lead me as a fan to say eff the refs as things had been called that day (holding 87 just prior), and have been called against gronk for literally years. Gronk as a pro? No excuse. Then again, no whistle, so what if White gets to the EZ...he's Gronk and has a shot at a gnat flying within arms reach...
In a slow motion vacuum? The hit looks terrible, especially the back side look. I ask everyone to watch the live shot. No whistle until after the hit. The whole interception/hit/whistle time frame is literally less than 2 seconds.
So, start your stopwatch:
Gronk pushed my cb at top route by cb, gronk goes down and cb kinda comes back to ball while going down with the int. Dorsett comes flying in to touch cb down as gronk gets up and lays the hit. Whistle blows. Stop. Less than 2 seconds have elapsed.
LIVE PLAY
Caught in process of going to the ground...can still be made a drop?
How many live play hit excuses can be made?
Again, not justifying what happened, but if taken in a vacuum without a clear OOB prone player, 15 yard roughing penalty at worst. Watch the clip live. 1.7ish (less than 2 seconds but closer to 2) seconds between push at the top of the rroute and the whistle after gronks hit.