The Jacksonville Jaguars' defense made their presence felt early and often against the New England Patriots in the AFC Conference Championship Game. However, things got a bit controversial when Jaguars safety Barry Church laid a vicious hit on Patriots star tight end Rob Gronkowski.
It was clear Gronkowski had suffered a head injury after he was slow to get up and was ultimately ruled out of the game. Following the 24-20 loss to New England, Church gave his piece on what happened during the play via Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk:
“I just tried to dislodge the ball,” Church said in the locker room after the game. “He’s a big dude and I was just trying to dislodge the ball, but I guess they felt it was too high of a hit. I hope he’s healthy. I know he didn’t come back so I hope he’s alright. It was a tough call, but you have to go with what they call. It’s the toughest play in football, if you go low for the knees you are considered a dirty player and if you go high, they throw the flag at you. It’s a bang-bang play and I was just trying to play football. I tried to lead with my shoulder.”
There has been plenty of discrepancy about how players should approach such situations. As Church mentioned, a defender only has a split second to determine how to tackle a would-be pass-catcher. That said, it was clear that he made helmet-to-helmet contact on this play. Regardless, the consensus is still split on whether or not it was a dirty hit by Church.
Unfortunately, it resulted in Gronkowski being ruled out for the rest of the game. However, the Patriots managed to pick up the slack by outscoring the Jaguars 14-6 in the second half en route to their 10th Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
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