Let’s be real here. Rob Gronkowski deserved to have a great bye week. The Patriots’ second-year tight end is in the midst of a fairly decent season; a season so decent, in fact, that one might argue it warrants hanging out with a porn star. Which, as it turns out, is exactly what Gronkowski did.

Yes, the University of Arizona product was lucky enough to find himself in the company of one Bibi Jones on Monday evening, thanks to a mutual friend from Gronkowski’s college days. Jones isn’t really all that much of a porn star, so much as she is a porn actress. Sure, she’s had sex with dudes…on film…for money. But a star? That’s a generous use of the term. For starters, the most famous athlete she claims to have slept with is Atlanta Braves second baseman Dan Uggla…yeah. For another, I had to Google her. And if I have to Google her, well, hah…okay, let’s just leave it at that.

Anyway, that’s not the real issue here. The issue at hand has to do with a few photos that circulated the interwebs earlier this week. These weren’t incriminating photos in any way. Simply photos of the pair together, with the most explicit revealing a shirtless Gronkowski standing alongside his new lady friend as she donned the football player’s jersey. The photos ended up on Jones’ Twitter account on Monday, then quickly circulated to the point where just two days later, Gronkowski was apologizing for his poor decision-making.

Now, I’m no expert here, but poor decision-making doesn’t usually involve taking pictures with a friend.

In my experience, poor decision-making usually involves blatant acts of stupidity, such as making it rain in a club where someone ultimately gets shot (Pac-Man Jones), hitting and killing someone with your car when you’re drunk (Donte Stallworth), or taking pictures of your man parts and watching as they surface on tabloid media sites (most athletes everywhere).

Would this be a problem if, say, Gronkowski and Jones were dating? Or even married? Would it be a problem if Jones wasn’t in the adult film industry? I wager it wouldn’t. So what’s the deal here? Why should this guy have to apologize?

What Gronkowski did is no different that what the rest of us would do in the same situation. We meet someone we deem to be famous, we get excited, we take a picture with them, we put our picture online, we wait for everyone we know to react. How is that so bad? Tell me what’s wrong with that.

To make matters worse (better?), both Gronkowski and Jones admit that “nothing happened” between them. Which, as most people can probably infer, means they didn’t have sex. Jones says she would have liked something to happen (sweet Jesus, Rob, make your move!), but it didn’t. And so their fledgling friendship remains cordial and innocent.

Everyone makes mistakes. Hanging out with a porn star is no mistake. That’s an effing blessing. Good for Rob Gronkowski. And shame on the Patriots organization for making him apologize. We’re all people here. So what if Gronkowski happens to be friends with someone making a living by using her body? At least she’s making a legal living. There are too many players in the NFL hanging around shady characters day and night and I don’t hear them apologizing for anything. So stop acting like this is so wrong.

Rob Gronkowski, I applaud you for doing something that most guys can only dream about. Keep it up. Use your powers for good. Always.

And to the men and women in the Patriots front office who encouraged this apology, stop it. Just stop it. You’re envious of your employee for having a good time. Half of you probably ran right to your PCs, looked up Bibi Jones, and got a full-on rager for the girl on your screen. Whatever. That’s normal. It’s called human nature. Embrace it.

It’s not the nineteenth century. We can acknowledge sex. We can acknowledge that people have sex. We can acknowledge that some people carve out nice careers by having sex. Don’t reprimand a guy like Gronkowski for living life to the fullest. And Rob, don’t feel the need to say you’re sorry for having fun. You can apologize all you want. But on behalf of society, I do not accept.

Best of luck with the rest of your season, dude.

And thanks for making us forget about that prude Tim Tebow for a week.