Tag: Myles Garrett

Let’s all just calm down a bit about the Myles Garrett incident

People are calling for Garrett to be prosecuted.

Let me get this out of the way right off the bat: what Myles Garrett did on Thursday night in hitting Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph over the head with his own helmet should never, ever happen in a football game.

It was disturbing, it was horrifying and it deserves a lengthy suspension. I’ve seen calls for the rest of the season, which would amount to six games.

But there are shouts from all corners for him to face worse. A year-long ban. A lifetime ban. There’s talk of prosecuting him and having him serve jail time.

And that’s where we need to all take a step back.

We don’t talk about assault when it’s a safety launching his helmet like a missile at a defenseless wide receiver’s head, when we’ve seen what repeated blows to the brain can do to a former NFL player. We don’t wonder if a player should face jail time if he sees a quarterback on the run out of the pocket and goes for a hard tackle.

What’s more, we don’t say the same about pitchers who throw 100 MPH fastballs at the heads of hitters for the simple act of tossing a bat or staring at a home run one millisecond too long. As former NFL running back Arian Foster correctly pointed out, we’re perfectly fine with fighting in hockey even though we’ve seen the effect it has had on some former NHL enforcers.

And on top of all of this, it’s not the first time this has happened.

Just this past August, Chicago Bears offensive lineman Kyle Long was ejected from training camp for taking off rookie DE Jalen Dalton’s helmet and hitting him with it. Did anyone call for Long to be prosecuted? No. We didn’t collectively see the footage and have spread across social media instantaneously. Yet Foster — a veteran of eight NFL seasons — said this kind of incident “happens in every training camp.”

This hit was blatant. It was obvious. It was on national television. Of course it deserves the attention it’s getting. A suspension is the just punishment. But to bring up jail time when we look the other way on other examples of violence in sports is a step too far.

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Bruce Irvin’s bad take on Baker Mayfield’s reaction to Myles Garrett incident

Panthers linebacker Bruce Irvin took to Twitter and said Mayfield was dry snitching by calling out his teammate.

At the end of Thursday night’s game between the Browns and Steelers, Myles Garrett made a shocking attack on Mason Rudolph. After a late hit, he stripped Rudolph’s helmet and then clubbed him over the head with it. A substantial fine and a lengthy suspension are certainly coming down the pipe for Garrett.

After the game, Baker Mayfield didn’t mince words. He knew what Garrett did was inexcusable and said as much.

Seems sensible enough, right?

Apparently not everyone agrees. Panthers linebacker Bruce Irvin took to Twitter and said Mayfield was dry snitching by calling out his teammate.

Irvin elaborated with another tweet, saying he’s all for being a leader but he says he’d never out his teammates on national TV ever.

Bad take.

Garrett outed himself on TV, so Mayfield couldn’t dry snitch even if he tried. Stating the obvious doesn’t mean Mayfield betrayed Garrett (who admitted he was wrong) in any way.

Having your teammate’s back does not require you to take their side when they have done something wrong. Period.

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Current, former Giants react to Myles Garrett meltdown

Current and former members of the New York Giants reacted to Myles Garrett hitting Mason Rudolph in the head with a helmet.

Cleveland Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett went off the rails during a Thursday Night Football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, ripping the helmet off of quarterback Mason Rudolph before proceeding to strike him in the head with it.

The incident sparked field-wide chaos including several isolated fights, leading to multiple ejections and what will amount to some serious suspensions and fines.

After the games, Garrett faced the media and took responsibility for his action. Former New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. joined him in shouldering the blame on behalf of the Browns, saying that incidents like that have no place in football.

“It’s not what direction we’re headed in as an organization,” Beckham said, via Browns Wire. “It just was not where we’ve been going. And it does feel like we lost the game.”

Several other current and former members of the Giants reacted during and after the event as well.

Just a crazy scene — one unlike the NFL has ever seen before.

Arian Foster calls out NFL fans for being hypocrites over Myles Garrett attack

Arian Foster spoke out about the Myles Garrett attack on Mason Rudolph, pointing out that NFL fans like violence when it’s within rules.

The Browns’ Myles Garrett could face a lengthy suspension for an on-field fight during Thursday Night Football, when he removed the helmet of Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph and then hit Rudolph over the head with the helmet.

Fans were outraged. Rudolph called it “bush league.” A lot of people were very upset.

Former NFL running back Arian Foster wasn’t comfortable with any of that, really. On Twitter, Foster called out NFL fans on their hypocrisy, saying they were totally fine with the violence of the sport, as long as it was within the confines of the rules. If violence occurs outside those rules, however, suddenly everyone gets very sanctimonious indeed.

He’s got a good point. Fans lament the days when safeties could head hunt defenseless receivers over the middle, but are ready to suspend Garrett indefinitely because he swung a helmet at a guy. Neither is good, of course, but you can’t really have it both ways.

Because it’s Twitter, a lot of people didn’t seem to understand the point Foster was trying to make, and got furious about it. This only sort of reinforced his point.

We need these lines of demarcation about what is appropriate/inappropriate on a football field, because if we don’t, then we’re just left with the realization that these players are crushing each other’s brains on every play.

Foster went on to talk about how fights like this happen all the time in training camp, and how no one seems to make as big a deal as this when baseball pitchers throw a hard object 100 mph at an opponent’s head. All good points!

The rest of his tweets have some pretty NSFW language, and rather them edit them all out, you can check them out at his Twitter feed.

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Garrett-Rudolph fight invokes memories of other helmet incidents, Cowboys involved

The fight that broke out at the end of Browns-Steelers wasn’t the first, nor will it be the last, helmet incident in the NFL. A recap.

The NFL world was placed on it’s head in the final moments of what should have been a celebratory situation for the Cleveland Browns in Thursday night’s win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Only it’s the Cleveland Browns and nice things rarely happen to that organization. A few seconds before defeating their rivals for the first time in the same season they also took out the Baltimore Ravens, all hell broke loose when defensive end Myles Garrett took down QB Mason Rudolph a few ticks after Rudolph had released the ball.

The takedown was late-hit flag worthy, but on it’s own probably wouldn’t be much of a big deal. What happened after, certainly was. On the ground, Rudolph and Garrett tussled, with Rudolph attempting to take off Garrett’s helmet.

This could be Rudolph’s hand getting stuck in Garrett’s facemask and him trying to get it out, as some have speculated, but what is going on with Rudolph’s left hand cannot be seen by the currently available angles.

There is clear animosity here as Rudolph grabs the back of Garrett’s helmet and almost pulls it off. Just as none of us outsiders know the full intent of Rudolph’s hands, none of us outsiders know what was being said during this tussle and it’s irresponsible to speculate on the specific words being used.

It is, of course, doubtful the two were exchanging pound cake recipes.

As they rose from the ground, Rudolph appears to have made contact with Garrett in the groin area not once, but twice. The intent, and the intensity, is unknown.

Garrett went apoplectic and not only retaliated by trying to remove Rudolph’s helmet — it’s a safe bet to assume Garrett didn’t take Rudolph’s action as a mild-mannered attempt to remove a hand from a facemask — but succeeded, and then things turned surreal.

Rudolph, helmet-less, still decides to pursue confrontation. Garrett, backpedaling, winds up and makes a mistake that could have cost Rudolph his season, career or possibly worse, by swinging the QBs helmet and connecting with his head.

Fortunately, the  open end of the helmet where there is padding is what connected, and not the crown of the helmet, or things could have ended badly. The incident will now get turned over to the league and suspensions will likely be coming for all involved. Steelers’ OL Maurkice Pouncey will likely be suspended for throwing punches in defense of his quarterback, Rudolph will likely be suspended for trying to rip off Garrett’s helmet and moving the situation from a penalty-worthy play to a fight, and Garrett certainly will be suspended for escalating the fight to a place things should never, ever go.

Except, they sometimes do.

This is hardly the first helmet-swinging incident the league or organized football has seen, despite the over-the-top reactions some in the media are having. They happen from time to time, including earlier this season in practice, they just haven’t been on primetime television in front of a national audience and during the age of social media where one instance spawns 10’s of thousands of responses.

Kyle Long vs Jalen Dalton (August 2019)

This tiff wasn’t caught on publicly available camera, though as teams record their practice sessions, video of it does exist somewhere .

For The Win reported on it at the time:

Bears offensive lineman Kyle Long had himself an interesting day at training camp on Wednesday. And by interesting, I mean that he took off a fellow player’s helmet and tried to beat him with it.

No, really, he did.

The three-time Pro Bowler was ejected from a mock scrimmage session after he got into a fight with rookie defensive lineman Jalen Dalton. Long apparently took exception to an earlier block by Dalton during an interception return. And frustrations boiled over when Long removed Dalton’s helmet and started hitting him with the helmet.

Richie Incognito vs Antoine Smith (August 2013)

Smith, the Houston Texans defensive lineman, scuffled with notorious bad boy and the oft-maligned offensive lineman, then of the Miami Dolphins. Yes, the threaten-everyone-in-a-funeral-home-with-guns-and-is-back-in-the-NFL Richie Incognito.

As all can see, Incognito gets his hands into the face and helmet of Smith first, just like Rudolph and Garrett, and the response is the escalation of violence. Smith is able to successfully remove Incognito’s helmet, and swings it at him in retaliation. He just doesn’t connect.

Flozell Adams vs Marcus Thomas (Summer 2008)

The Cowboys aren’t immune to being in such instances. During a joint practice with the Denver Broncos, things got heated leading the Dallas lineman to swing a helmet in a big scrum.

The reactions at the time come courtesy of the Denver Post, including Broncos HC Mike Shanahan being pleased no one threw a punch.

“That’s all part of football,” Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens said. “When you get all this testosterone going out here, it gets a little out of hand.”

“When you’re going against other guys, guys that you’re not friends with, sometimes tempers flare,” Broncos linebacker D.J. Williams said. “I guess two guys got into it a little extra at the end of the play, and once that happens, your friends come, everybody’s friends come. It’s a big pile-on, just grabbing and pushing.”

Asked about the fracas, Broncos coach Mike Shanahan retorted: “That wasn’t a fight. It wasn’t a fight. You know what a fight is. That was just a little pushing. It happens all the time. But they kept their composure and they didn’t swing. And that’s what you want.”

Don Joyce vs Les Lichtner (1954)

These things are of course nothing new. Here, Twitter user @DanDalyOnSports finds an old-school incident involving a current Hall of Famer.

The league’s response? Very interesting.

Lyle Alzado also got frisky back in the 1980s.

Albert Haynesworth vs Andre Gurode (2006)

Of course the most notable helmet incident prior to this one didn’t involve a helmet swing, but did involve a member of the Dallas Cowboys.

After a Julius Jones touchdown, the then Tennessee Titans defensive lineman stood over the Cowboys center Andre Gurode, ripped off his helmet and unsuccessfully tried to step on his face. Undeterred, he went for a second stomp, causing several lacerations to Gurode’s face that would require multiple stitches.

Haynesworth was suspended five games the very next day. It will be interesting to see how long, and how quickly the parties in Thursday night’s events are punished.

Nothing happens in today’s world without being captured in a contemporary meme, and all should be grateful the scream-at-the-too-cool-cat meme is what’s hot right now. Enjoy.

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Mason Rudolph calls what Myles Garrett did ‘bush league’ and ‘a total coward move’

Mason Rudolph didn’t mince words when talking about what Myles Garrett did at the end of the game.

After the game, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph addressed the incident between him and Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett. Surprisingly, given how the game turned out, Rudolph didn’t pull any punches (get it?) in calling what Garrett did “a total coward move on his part” and “bush league” in reference to Garrett pulling off Rudolph’s helmet and hitting Rudolph with it.

But before you are want to pass judgment on Rudolph for his comments, you just need to look to his own team. Many Browns’ players and even their head coach shared their disapproval with what Garrett did.

Rudolph was also asked if he thought Garrett should be suspended for the season. To which Rudolph took the high road and rather than interject his opinion simply deferred to the league noting he didn’t know the rules on these types of things but it didn’t matter.

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Odell Beckham Jr.: ‘It feels like we lost the game’ with Myles Garrett’s act

What should be a great night for the Browns instead feels empty and sickening

What should be a joyous celebration for the Cleveland Browns instead felt like a wake. The 21-7 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night was completely overshadowed by the disgusting brawl involving Myles Garrett hitting Steelers QB Mason Rudolph over the head with his own helmet in the final seconds of the end of the fourth quarter.

The action was a stunning display of senseless violence. A visibly shaken Odell Beckham Jr. watched the full incident for the first time while on the set of the NFL Network postgame show. The Browns wideout later addressed the media.

“It’s not what direction we’re headed in as an organization,” Beckham said, still unsure of how to fully process the ugly scene. “It just was not where we’ve been going. And it does feel like we lost the game.”

That sentiment was echoed by Baker Mayfield in his conversations with reporters after the game as well. And it’s understandable.

Nobody will remember the Browns win. This will be the Myles Garrett violence game. Neither Beckham nor Mayfield defended the action, nor should they. What should be a great night instead feels empty and sickening.

Ex-players, current NFL stars react to the Myles Garrett-Mason Rudolph fight

One of the wildest incidents in NFL history overshadowed a big AFC North win for the Cleveland Browns.

Not long after the clock struck midnight in Cleveland, the big win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, the first one in five years, had already been forgotten. The joy of finally overcoming the AFC North rival deflated and distorted into a media-frenzy of questions and moments of dead air—because even the ones who get paid to make sure dead air doesn’t happen were speechless.

In case you missed it:

Although the NFL will inevitably over-starch the canvas while trying to iron this debacle out, the courts of public opinion work a little more quickly. Beyond those who have been self-appointed as Measurers of Proper Football Inflating, there were some strong takes from both current and ex-NFL players, no more than 20-some minutes after the ugly (ugliest?) incident occurred:

And then, in the left corner, the man fighting out of Oklahoma State:

In the right corner, fighting out of Texas A&M:

 

Probably the most-reasonable sound clips to come out of this, so far, has been from the coaches:

Those expecting quick and precise justice for this incident might want to hit the breaks, too—there has already been a scorecard debate that judges this bout as more of a push, a “He took my lunch, first!” ordeal.

And no, I don’t think Odell Beckham Jr. was fined for any uniform infractions tonight.

Myles Garrett somehow doesn’t think his ugly attack overshadowed Browns’ win

“A win is a win. … I don’t think it’s overshadowed by what happens in 8 seconds.”

Myles Garrett committed one of the ugliest attacks you’ll ever see in a football game when he ripped off Mason Rudolph’s helmet and struck him in the head with it.

Garrett should be suspended for the rest of the season. His QB, Baker Mayfield, called the attack “inexcusable.” And the NFL world couldn’t believe it.

Which makes Garrett’s comments after the game all the more insane. The former No. 1 pick was asked by a reporter in the locker room about his attack overshadowing a big win by the Browns.

But Garrett didn’t think it overshadowed the win, which is crazy because that’s all anyone’s going to be talking about for a while.

Here he is breaking it down:

Yeah, that’s just wrong. This overshadowed the win. By a lot.

He did, however, call his actions “foolish.”

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Myles Garrett: ‘I made a mistake, I lost my cool and I regret it’

Myles Garrett: ‘I made a mistake, I lost my cool and I regret it’ after his ejection in the Browns win over the Steelers

“I made a mistake, I lost my cool and I regret it,” a contrite and calm Garrett said at his locker after the Cleveland Browns’ 21-7 win over the rival Pittsburgh Steelers. The Cleveland Browns defensive end was starting to realize just how much of an understatement he was making.

Garrett was ejected from the game for a violent attack on Steelers QB Mason Rudolph where he took Rudolph’s helmet off and proceeded to strike him over the head with it. The incident late in the fourth quarter dominates what was otherwise an impressive and much-needed win for the Browns.

The game outcome is secondary, thanks to Garrett’s action. Here’s what the Pro Bowler had to say to the reporters gathered around his locker about his actions, as broadcast on NFL Network,

“Absolutely, that is embarrassing. What I did was foolish and I shouldn’t have allowed myself to do stuff like that. It’s out of character. But in a situation like that where it’s an emotional game like (teammate Larry Ogunjobi, who was also ejected) said, and I can’t allow myself to fall into those emotions.”

Garrett said he will address his teammates tomorrow.

“I’m not just going to address my position group or defense. I’m going to prepare the whole team on what I did. That it could come back to bite us.

I don’t know what kind of repercussions I will face but, I’ve got to be better.”

Garrett was asked what he thinks he might say to his teammates.

“I’ll think of it when I get there, but…embarrassing,” Garrett said. “Foolish. A bad representation of who we want to be and what we’re trying to do with the rest of the season.”

Garrett figures to be suspended for multiple games and heavily fined for his actions.