From my view of the video, I think calling Gard the “aggressor” is a bit overstated. Can you be an aggressor without being aggressive? Because I don’t see anything aggressive about Gard trying to get Howard to pause in the line so he could explain himself, after Howard obviously expressed his displeasure. To me, he was trying to defuse the matter right there, rather than have it linger when these two met next. And to those who say he shouldn’t have put a hand on Howard, OK, I get that. But it’s weak, IMO, for a grown man to take the sort of offense Howard did.
Yet another example of why the forced post-game handshake line ought to be abolished.