(WHDH) — The NFL Network has confirmed that Patriots star tight end Rob Gronkowski has been suspended one game for his hit on a Buffalo Bills player on Sunday.
Video replays showed Gronkowski running at and jumping on Bills defensive back Tre’Davious White, leading Bills running back LeSean McCoy to call it “a nasty and dirty play.”
Gronkowski was flagged for unnecessary roughness on the play and later apologized for the incident.
Since the incident, speculation centered on whether the star tight end should be fined, suspended, or let off the hook for the play.
In a release from the NFL, the league cited Rule 12, Section 2, Article 6, which prohibits “unecessary roughness,” specifically “forcibly contacting a runner when he is out of bounds” and “running, diving into…or throwing the body against or on a player who is (1) out of the play, or (2) should not have reasonably anticipated such contact by an opponent, before or after the ball is dead.”
Additionally, Rule 12, Section 2, Article 7 says it prohibits “initiating unnecessary contact against a player who is in a defenseless posture.”
The Vice President of Football Operations, Jon Runyan, wrote, “Your actions were not incidental, could have been avoided and placed the opposing player at serious risk of injury. The Competition Committee has clearly expressed its goal of ‘eliminating flagrant hits that have no place in our game.’ Those hits include the play you were involved in yesterday.”
Gronkowski now has the option of appealing within three days or accepting the suspension.
The Patriots’ next game will be against another division rival — the Miami Dolphins, in Miami.
This is a developing story; stay with 7News for more details as they become available.
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