Tom Brady defends Darian Stewart over hit on Rob Gronkowski

Denver Broncos safety Darian Stewart took Rob Gronkowski out of Sunday night’s game with a hit to the right knee. Gronkowski appeared to be in tremendous pain and had to be carted off the field. Was it a dirty play?

Tom Brady doesn’t think so.

“I hate to see it, but it really is the only way defenders can hit now,” Brady said after the New England Patriots suffered their first loss of the season, via Nick Groke of The Denver Post. “I bet if you asked the players, they would really rather go high than low. I don’t think it’s dirty. I just think that’s how football is played now.”

Stewart said he was going for the ball, not Gronkowski’s knee.

“I was just trying to dislodge the ball,” he said. “You never want to see anyone get hurt.”

We’ve seen dirty plays, and the hit from Stewart on Gronk wasn’t one of them. If you haven’t seen the play, you can watch it here. It’s easy to nitpick when you watch something 40 times in slow motion, but defenders are trained to go low now to avoid being flagged for hitting a defenseless receiver in the head or neck area. There’s no way you can say Stewart intended to injury Gronkowski.

Fortunately for the Patriots, early indications are that Gronk has avoided the worst case scenario.