Rob Gronkowski apologizes for ‘fried rice’ comment directed at Asian fan
By Mike Dyce
A video was released earlier this week that showed New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski at a Sunday Night Football watch party. The video starts with them chanting as an Asian man dances around. Gronkowski says something about sticking to some kind of dances, but I can’t make it out but he chuckles. Then Gronkowski adds, “they told me he could only cook fried rice.” Gronk also calls him Leslie Chow, the name of the Asian character from the hangover movie.
“I feel bad, personally,” Gronkowski said, via Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com. “I feel bad. I talked to Joe and he assured me he took no offense in any way. I know others did [take offense] and I apologize to those who took offense.”
Still it was a lapse in judgment. Fortunately for Gronk it seemed to never make the national news other racial stories have. It was buried under the scandal in the Miami Dolphins locker room between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. That story also involved a racial slur from Incognito directed towards Martin.