Cleveland, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Myles Garrett met with head coach Freddie Kitchens, and then the entire team Friday morning to apologize for tearing off quarterback Mason Rudolph’s helmet and hitting him in the head with it in the closing seconds of Thursday night's 21-7 win over the Steelers.
The NFL wasted no time handing out discipline Friday morning.
Garrett has been indefinitely suspended without pay for the remainder of this season and he will have to meet with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell at some point to plead his case for reinstatement in 2020.
“We were expecting a response from the league,” Kitchens said on a conference call. “We respect their response like that, and we have to accept it, just like Myles has to accept you have consequences for your actions. That is a consequence that Myles has, and unfortunately that affects him, it affects us and it affects us as an organization. I do not have a response to their suspension. You put it in their hands when you do something like that.”
Browns defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi was suspended without pay for 1 game and fined for shoving Rudolph from behind. Steelers center Maurkice Pouncy got 3 games without pay and a fine for punching and kicking Garrett during the brawl.
The Browns and Steelers franchises were also fined $250,000 each by the commissioner.
“It was not the way you wanted to win the game,” left guard Joel Bitonio said. “It definitely felt different.”
NFL rules stipulate suspended players are not permitted to be in the building or participate in any team activities.
Kitchens offered his full support of Garrett going forward.
“Myles is very, very remorseful, and we are going to stand behind Myles,” Kitchens said. “We do not condone in any way what happened, but we are going to stand behind Myles as a person. As you read the report about the suspension, he is going to be suspended. Like I told you guys, we consider ourselves a family. When someone is hurting and someone is feeling like this, we are going to stand behind him.”
Bitonio, the longest tenured Brown, explained what Garrett’s message to the team was.
“He just wanted to apologize to us,” Bitonio said. “He says that he is going to prove to us that it was just one incident on his radar and that he is going to strive every day to be a better person and show us that that is not his true character and that he feels like he had let us down obviously because he is not going to be out there with us on gamedays.”
Kitchens declined to say much about the NFL’s decision not to suspend Rudolph for his actions prior to being struck in the head with his own helmet by Garrett.
“We know what we saw, and I really do not think there is any benefit to me sharing my feelings on any of that,” Kitchens said. “I know that is not what you are looking for in an answer, but I just do not think anything good can be gained by me expressing my opinion or feelings.”
In Week 1 Garrett clubbed Titans tight end Delanie Walker in the head. He was hit with multiple late hit fouls in a win over the Jets the following week, including one that ended the season of Jets backup quarterback Trevor Simeon.
So what caused Garrett, who is normally calm, respectful and passive, to snap this year?
“I think Myles is a young player, and sometimes young players try to find their way from the standpoint of being physical,” Kitchens said. “Maybe Myles just was not very physical the first couple of years, and he has become more physical. Now he has to understand the limitations on that aspect of it.
“Myles has done a good job of eliminating those things from his game. He just let his emotions and lost his composure last night when things got like that.”
Garrett’s reputation has been permanently stained. Kitchens and the Browns know it.
“The ball is in his court on how he responds to this,” Kitchens said. “It is up to him on showing people and showing the National Football League that that is not who he is. You are looking at a guy who is a tremendous asset as a teammate, in the entire organization and to our fans. He is always out in the community and doing things for the community. He is a good teammate.
“He just lost his cool. He lost his composure. A terrible mistake, and sometimes things like that carry on with someone. If the person puts enough time into it, he can make amends. This will never be like it never happened, but people understand that that is an outlier of Myles Garrett and not the norm.”
