White sees ‘dirty player’
Pats defend TE against criticism
FOXBORO — If you thought Tre’Davious White would be in a forgiving mood after clearing concussion protocol following the cheap shot he took from Rob Gronkowski, you’d be wrong. Very wrong. Yesterday, White blasted the one-game suspension Gronkowski incurred for hitting him from behind in Sunday’s game.
“It’s a joke, dog,” he said in the Bills locker room. “Man, I don’t know what to say on that. I’m laying there. He snuck (up on) 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, you know? But that’s here nor there, but it is what it is.”
The hit came after White intercepted a pass intended for Gronkowski in the fourth quarter. After the play was over, the Patriots tight end lined up White, who was laying flat on his stomach, and crashed down with his arm on the back of the Bills cornerback’s helmet. White stayed down for several minutes before walking off the field.
Gronkowski was suspended for Monday night’s game against the Dolphins. Patriots tight end Dwayne Allen, who will likely move into the starting role with Gronkowski out, stood up for his teammate.
“I won’t respond directly to Tre’Davious, but I’ll definitely defend the character of Rob,” Allen said. “Rob is a guy, again, who is a tremendous player, who is a high-character guy, who comes to work, who loves his teammates. He loves playing the game of football and goes about playing the game the right way.”
Allen added that Gronkowski “would not want to harm anyone.”
White was not buying Gronkowski’s explanation after the game that it was done in the heat of the moment.
“The guy did what he wanted to do, man,” White said. “He is what he did. Dirty shot, so what does that make him? Dirty player, pretty simple.”
Gronkowski apologized when he spoke to reporters after the game, blaming the outburst on frustration and saying he’s “not in the business of that.”
But White said he hasn’t heard from Gronkowski since the play.
“Nothing,” he said. “I don’t want to hear nothing from him.”
White was asked if Gronkowski’s postgame apology meant anything to him, “No. His intentions were what he did, so, no,” he said.
Patriots linebacker Marquis Flowers stood up for Gronkowski, saying he’s a “good guy” and adding that the label of a dirty player shouldn’t be applied to him based on one play.
“I know he’s not a dirty player,” Flowers said.