Sports Blowhard: Rodney Harrison

"Rob Gronkowski called out," reads the headline on ESPN.com.

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/7555535/former-new-england-patriots-player-rodney-harrison-rob-gronkowski-partying-not-right

Rodney Harrison, former New England Patriots safety and current NBC Sunday Night Football commentator/sports blowhard, doesn't like the fact that current Pats TE Rob Gronkowski was witnessed celebrating at a party after the Giants' win in Super Bowl XLVI. Or perhaps it's that the video hit the internet. Either way, Harrison especially doesn't like that Gronk took off his shirt.

My knee-jerk reaction: Who gives an F?

Post-Super Bowl, the overwhelming amount of media reaction, from the Worldwide Leader more so than anywhere else, has focused on 1) New England losing, 2) Welker dropping a pass (phrased that way rather than "Welker not catching the ball"), and 3) Gronkowski dancing shirtless.

Again, who gives an F?

Apparently, Gronk can choose one of two reactions:

1) Hang his head and feel sorry about the ultimate outcome of the season, as Harrison approves of, or
2) Celebrate the fact that he had a killer season, won the AFC title, and was on the second-best team in all of the NFL.

One sounds a little better to me. Hey, #87 was one of Brady's most-reliable go-to's this year, hauling in 20 TDs. Then he's hit with a high ankle sprain at the worst possible time in the season? Is the sentiment that Rodney is trying to share with us that, "if Gronkowski is fit enough to dance, then he's fit enough to catch everything down field"?

"I guarantee you this, if Willie McGinest, Tedy Bruschi, Larry Izzo, Richard Seymour, or myself had been at that party, [Gronkowski] probably would have got his head rung," said Harrison. Really? You catch the dude you depended on all year dancing and your first instinct is to gather a posse and beat your teammate with a sack of door knobs? That doesn't sound much like the team spirit I know.

Harrison continued, "It's not right. He made a mistake and I'm sure he feels absolutely stupid about it at this point."

Probably not. Yeah, maybe he feels bad the video made it out and onto the web, but I bet he doesn't regret celebrating.

We live in a Twitter world. After Harrison's last Super Bowl loss in '08, that wasn't as much the case. But it is now. Anything these guys do is highly likely to find a home on ESPN.com and the like, whereas those same actions probably stayed within the franchise in Harrison's day.

And I don't believe for a second that after New England's loss in '08, and the end of their near-perfect season, that not a single player celebrated. We just don't have access to the grainy, iPhone video to prove it.

If someone is misguided enough to parts ways with Gronk over something like this, I know there are 31 other teams ready to pick him up and celebrate alongside him.