The one-game suspension the NFL handed to New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski for his juvenile, dangerous forearm shiver to the head of an unsuspecting, defenseless opponent is shamefully insufficient by 2017 standards.
How so? It starts with what we now know about those types of blows.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease discovered only relatively recently in athletes who have suffered multiple head injuries, has destroyed the lives of dozens of professional football players.
In a study published this year in the Journal of American Medicine, CTE was diagnosed in 87 percent of 202 deceased former football players.