GARRETT SUSPENDED INDEFINITELY BY NFL
One of the best pass-rushers will stay home because of his helmet-swinging actions
Of course Myles Garrett should have been suspended without pay for at least the rest of the season.
He should be grateful for anything short of a lifetime ban from the NFL, and he and his players union should not appeal the punishment.
Ripping a helmet off a quarterback and swing-slamming it hard off that bare-headed QB’S head? Are you kidding me?
The NFL on Friday quickly punished the Cleveland Browns pass rusher following his historically horrible actions late in Thursday night’s home-field victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“Garrett has been suspended without pay indefinitely — at a minimum for the remainder of the regular season and post-season — and must meet with the commissioner’s office prior to a decision on his reinstatement,” the league’s press release said, issued Friday.
“Garrett violated unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct rules, as well as fighting, removing the helmet of an opponent and using the helmet as a weapon.”
The Browns have six more games to play in 2019, and are unlikely to make the playoffs, so Garrett’s suspension without pay at minimum is for six games.
Two other linemen involved in the late-game melee — Cleveland’s Larry Ogunjobi and Pittsburgh’s Maurkice Pouncey — were suspended without pay. Ogunjobi for one game, Pouncey for three games. As well, each club was fined US$250,000.
Each suspended player has three business days to appeal. Garrett shouldn’t.
Look, when your own teammates and coaches, in any sport, are instantly left with no other option but to admit your action was indefensible — as outrageous as anything any of us has ever seen in any non-fiction sporting event — you should be mighty happy if you’re permitted to play that sport, ever again.
Surely all of us, including the most blindly loyal Browns fans, can agree on that after the shock of seeing what Garrett did.
With eight seconds left in Cleveland’s 21-7 victory, the pass rusher — one of the NFL’S best — basically lost his mind. He bearhugged Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph a split-second after Rudolph dumped off a pass to Terrell Edmunds, then didn’t let go.
Instead, Garrett continued to bull-rush, bear-hug and twist Rudolph for another couple of seconds, until finally flip-slamming the 6-foot-5, 235-pound QB to the Firstenergy Stadium turf.
If that’s all Garrett had done he still might have been ejected and faced a hefty fine from the NFL
But Garrett still didn’t let go. He even repositioned himself as a wrestler would to better keep Rudolph pinned to the ground. The quarterback understandably took immense offence, and tried pushing Garrett off him, even grabbing at Garrett’s helmet in a Wtf-are-you-doing? act of instant-reaction self defence.
Garrett then grabbed onto Rudolph’s face mask and wouldn’t let go, tugging and tugging and finally violently twist-ripping the helmet off the now off-balance and falling Rudolph.
As millions watched on TV across North America, the 6-foot4, 272-pound Garrett swung the helmet with immense force — around and down on top of Rudolph’s barren head.
All hell broke loose.
The only other such NFL incident that came to mind as equating with Garrett’s was when Tennessee defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth ripped the helmet off Dallas centre Andre Gurode in 2005 and kicked him in the face, a wound that drew blood and required stitches. Haynesworth was suspended for five games.
Few incidents of in-game violence in North American high-level sport compare. One of the most egregious previous examples occurred in the NHL in 2004, when Vancouver Canucks enforcer Todd Bertuzzi was charged by police with criminal assault after viciously sucker-punching Colorado Avalanche centre Steve Moore in the back of the head; Moore collapsed to the ice unconscious, was stretchered off and never played professional hockey again.
In post-game interviews Thursday night, nobody on the Browns excused Garrett’s action.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield: “It’s inexcusable.”
Wideout Odell Beckham Jr.: “We can’t have that. It’s dumb. It’s going to hurt the team.” Garrett?
“I made a mistake. I lost my cool, and it’s going to come back to hurt our team. The guys who jumped in to the scrum, I appreciate my team having my back, but it should have never got to that point. It’s on me.
“What I did was foolish, and I shouldn’t have allowed myself to slip like that. It’s out of character, but in a situation like that where it’s an emotional game ... I allowed myself to fall into those emotions with that last play and what happened.”
Whether it helps his cause, Garrett said there was no buildup during the game to the incident. In other words, in legal parlance, there was no premeditation.
Garrett is in the third year of his rookie contract. By forfeiting the final six weekly payments of his $3.23-million 2019 base salary, Garrett will be out $1.14 million in earnings.
Is Garrett a dirty player? This season the 23-year-old from Texas already had been fined by the league for over-theline incidents.
Garrett was the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2017 and is viewed as one of the most physically gifted edge rushers to enter the NFL this century.
Thankfully, no other NFL quarterback at least until August or September of next year has to worry about Garrett.