11/23/24
November 15, 2013
ROB GRONKOWSKI Mocks Asian Fan WHERE'S THE FRIED RICE? : Maybe New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski hasn't heard what's going on with Richie Incognito -- because he openly mocked an Asian fan over the weekend, calling the guy "Leslie Chow"... and joking about fried rice.
Today, Gronkowski apologizes.
He apologizes to those he offended, not to everyone?
If you watch the video, a bunch of people laugh. Those people aren't owed an apology.
posted by dfleming at 06:56 PM on November 15, 2013
No, just some education.
posted by owlhouse at 08:35 PM on November 15, 2013
Ah, love Gronkowski as a player, but, today, fuck that guy.
posted by Joey Michaels at 08:40 PM on November 15, 2013
I dunno, that's pretty old meme. Seems like a joke from the 50s. Some athletes just aren't very bright. Or nice.
posted by insomnyuk at 01:41 AM on November 16, 2013
Some athletes just aren't very bright
Yup. Great athletic talent but sorely lacking elsewhere.
Patriots kept this guy and Hernandez and let Welker walk: quite a commentary on the organization and it's values.
posted by cixelsyd at 02:37 AM on November 16, 2013
Patriots kept this guy and Hernandez and let Welker walk: quite a commentary on the organization and it's values.
What? Hernandez once it was clear he was involved in a murder was released. Linking something like this to something of that magnitude is beyond a stretch. Are you advocating that you think your team would release him, and subsequently all other 31 teams in the NFL would let him sit unclaimed, over something like this?
Welker was let walk because they believed Amendola was a better use of their money. There's been nothing to suggest that Danny's anything less than a stand up guy.
If we walk through the 32 teams in the NFL right now, I am sure we can find examples on every squad where the "organization and its values" could be cherry picked.
posted by dfleming at 09:43 AM on November 16, 2013
Do you really think your team would release an athlete of Gronk's caliber over one offensive racial joke?
posted by rcade at 11:04 AM on November 16, 2013
Patriots kept this guy and Hernandez and let Welker walk: quite a commentary on the organization and it's values.
Don't ever change: no athlete or team is good enough but somehow you enjoy sports. It's impressive. Even if we pretended for a second Welker v Gronkowski was not a False Dilemma, which player do you think the majority of NFL GMs would pick right now? How about Welker v Hernandez last off-season before the drama started? Welker is 32; that alone would make either of the Patriots tight ends more valuable and they thought (incorrectly so far) Amendola would be an adequate replacement at less money and fewer miles on the tires.
posted by yerfatma at 01:38 PM on November 16, 2013
The fact that the Pats briefly signed and played Austin Collie goes to show how unsuccessful they were at replacing Welker. My primary reaction to that was "wow, I really hope this isn't how the first NFL player dies on the field."
posted by feloniousmonk at 03:48 PM on November 16, 2013
I read a bit more information in today's on-line edition of the Boston Herald. No source was identified by the author, Jeff Howe, so draw your own conclusions, but here's what supposedly happened. The setting was a private party at Bar Louie, an establishment in the Gillette Stadium complex, Patriot Place. Gronkowski was chatting with an Asian-American friend, identified as "Joe", and warned Joe that he would be called out to the dance floor later on. At that time Joe told Gronkowski that he couldn't dance but could cook fried rice. When the time came for Joe to take the floor, Gronkowski said, "They told me he could only cook fried rice". Thus it was Grownkowski repeating a comment he had been told, and indeed had been told by the person who was supposedly being racially insulted. Somehow the furor over the incident seems well out of proportion to the actual event, if the story quoted is true. Perhaps it is racially insensitive conduct, but hardly of the character of an outright racial slur meant to inflict emotional abuse.
posted by Howard_T at 09:26 PM on November 16, 2013
"wow, I really hope this isn't how the first NFL player dies on the field."
Chuck Hughes died on the field in the 70's. That really got my attention when I was in high school.
posted by beaverboard at 10:41 PM on November 16, 2013
Do you really think your team would release an athlete of Gronk's caliber over one offensive racial joke?
Never. In fact players on my favorite NFL team are guilty of much worse.
My point is some emphasis should be placed on character. Welker can still play and was a major player in all of the Patriots success. Cut him loose for Gronk / Hernandez while obviously knowing the character of the latter? Huge mistake.
Don't ever change
No problem, bro - I don't intend to.
posted by cixelsyd at 01:59 AM on November 17, 2013
If the choice is between keeping Gronk or Welker, there isn't a team in the NFL that would keep Welker. Welker is great, but he isn't a 24-year-old who is breaking touchdown reception records at his position.
Your continued grouping of Gronk and Hernandez makes me wonder what you know that we don't. Did I miss the stories where Gronk was killing people? All I recall is that he took some social media photos with porn stars, which is protected by the First Amendment.
posted by rcade at 08:08 AM on November 17, 2013
My point is some emphasis should be placed on character.
And you're holding up the Patriots as an example of a team that does not? "The Patriot Way" has certainly taken some dings over the past few seasons, but they have been a team that tends to pick up B+ players who are smart/ good character guys and tries to form a team rather than a collection of stars. They cut Hernandez earlier than they had to and cost themselves a fair bit of money and cap space to do so (as opposed to other teams that waited for the league to suspend the player so they could save dough).
posted by yerfatma at 11:28 AM on November 17, 2013
Welker can still play and was a major player in all of the Patriots success. Cut him loose for Gronk / Hernandez while obviously knowing the character of the latter? Huge mistake.
That wasn't the choice they made. You are willfully ignoring that they replaced Welker with Amendola, a similar guy with (seemingly) no character issues. At no point did anyone, anywhere, discuss Gronk or Hernandez' contracts (which were signed before this offseason) as the reason they didn't resign Welker.
Character matters, but it doesn't make a slot WR into a pro bowl TE. The choice you're talking about is absurd.
posted by dfleming at 12:02 PM on November 17, 2013
I am a true Patriots-hater and have to say I really like what I'm seeing from them this year. They are fun to watch - tons of talent, not entirely comfortable in their system and not very deep.
I have them going to the Super Bowl, if they stay healthy and beat the Panthers tomorrow. (I don't make a lot of money sportsbetting.)
posted by phaedon at 01:05 PM on November 17, 2013
Even though Gronkowski and Hernandez both play/played for the Patriots, I think a better comparison would be the whole Riley Cooper affair over at the Eagles.
I'm not even sure Hernandez' activities were such an incredible aberration. Sure, he had major character problems that his teammates were willing to overlook, known associates that the team should have kept a closer watch on, postures and habits out of line with the league's image that team leadership overlooked because he was such a damn good player, but isn't that the way football is coached at all levels?
My small high school state championship-winning football team had letterman drug dealers (I witnessed the head coach watch our star running back selling dope to an underclassman; we were in the playoffs so the coach just shook his head and retreated to his office), rapists, two eventual murderers... but they were stud athletes so hush, hush everybody, let them play, maybe the sport will build their characters where everything else seems to be failing.
Teams employ high-profile quarterbacks who, encouraged by their wealth and legal muscle, coerce their rape victims to drop charges, then, with such proof of untouchability, commit the same crime again. Others are dark enough to go to jail for lesser crimes. That's what character's all about!
It isn't just any one team that is willing to let a hell of a lot slide in the interests of winning. It isn't just the league. It's the whole damn sport. That there are counterexamples here and there doesn't change the fact that most football programs excuse and even enable a great deal of harmful behavior, some of it illegal, and encourage players to feel invincible and above the law. Occasionally they discover that it's not the case, but a football player has to do a whole hell of a lot to get more than a slap on the wrist.
That's really neither here nor there. To me what's interesting about what Gronkowski said versus what Cooper said -- both incidents were captured and displayed in the media in similar circumstances -- is that Cooper's racism was dangerous to his team, threatened locker room peace and endangered team cohesion. Gronkowski's most likely did not.
posted by Hugh Janus at 01:29 PM on November 17, 2013
Somehow the furor over the incident seems well out of proportion to the actual event, if the story quoted is true.
Well, I'll be damned if I'm going to take context into consideration when determining where to direct my outrage.
Completely unrelated--remember when everything wasn't recorded? When I was Gronkowski's age, I probably did more stupid shit in one booze fueled evening than most do in a lifetime. If iPhones were around then, I never would have passed the moral character requirements to be admitted to the bar.
posted by tahoemoj at 08:01 PM on November 17, 2013
If iPhones were around then, I never would have passed the moral character requirements to be admitted to the bar.
[insert joke about lawyers, morality, and limbo world record]
posted by grum@work at 08:08 PM on November 17, 2013
[insert joke about lawyers, morality, and limbo world record]
Imagine my surprise when I realized that the moral character test wasn't intended to measure flexibility!
posted by tahoemoj at 10:57 AM on November 18, 2013
It isn't just any one team that is willing to let a hell of a lot slide in the interests of winning. It isn't just the league. It's the whole damn sport.
Well, I don't know if that's the nature of football or simply the nature of men's/ boy's athletics. Some people accept an awful lot to have an awful small spot of success in a life of quiet desperation. I guess you get to a point where your dreams crapped out so you channel so much self-worth into the next generation's success that there's no turning back for little stuff like sexual assault.
posted by yerfatma at 04:57 PM on November 18, 2013
Another non-apology apology from someone? He apologizes to those he offended, not to everyone?