The Patriots and their fans are very salty about their loss to the Broncos on Sunday Night Football, most notably because of two offensive pass interference calls against star tight end Rob Gronkowski. There is growing sentiment that Gronkowski is being officiated differently because of his size relative to players defending him, much like Shaquille O’Neal would struggle to draw foul calls in the NBA.

Of course, this debate is complicated by the Patriots’ frosty relationship with the NFL following the interminable Deflategate scandal, wherein the league attempted to suspend Tom Brady for four games. Brady was outspoken about the controversy when he spoke on The Dennis and Callahan Show on WEEI.

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"They just feel like there's a push off. It's obviously different than what I saw, because I'm looking at it too, but they're the ones with the flags and they throw it. You hate to see it come down to stuff like that, but there were a lot of plays last night that just didn't necessarily end up the way we would have hoped and there were a lot of things that we could have done better,” Brady said.

Clearly, Brady meant the refs could do better, and not his tight end. Gronkowski spoke about this topic earlier in the season with ESPN, and had said he was not going to make changes.

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"I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm playing football...I'm not changing my style,” Gronkowski said.

What Gronk thinks is irrelevant, however. He’s been flagged six times this season for offensive pass interference, with one on Sunday night being offset by a Denver penalty. Those five called offensive pass interference penalties are the most in the league, so the referees have clearly determined he’s doing something wrong.

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