An ugly scene broke out at the end of Thursday night’s AFC North clash between the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers. The Browns came away with the win, but they likely lost defensive star Myles Garrett for the foreseeable future after a brawl broke out.
With seconds left in the game, Garrett hit Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph and dropped him to the ground. An understandably frustrated Rudolph then attempted to rip off Garrett’s helmet. That set off Garrett, who responded by ripping off Rudolph’s helmet and then things took a turn for the worse.
Garrett wound up with Rudolph’s helmet in hand and smacked the quarterback over his exposed head.
Steelers linemen responded by running to the altercation before punching and kicking Garrett until order was restored by the referees.
After the game, Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield was interviewed on the field by FOX Sports’ Erin Andrew when he expressed his disappointment in Garrett and said that he believes the defensive end will be suspended.
“I didn’t see why it started, but it’s inexcusable. I don’t care, rivalry or not, we can’t do that. That’s kind of the history of what’s been going on here lately, hurting yourself, and that’s just endangering the other team. It’s inexcusable, he knows that. I hope he does now. It’s tough. We’ll see,” Mayfield said.
“I don’t think there’s anything in that moment that I can really say to calm him down. The reality is he’s going to get suspended, we don’t know how long, and that hurts our team. We can’t do that. We can’t continue to hurt this team. It’s inexcusable.”
The loss of Garrett is a big one for a Browns team that has put together a two-game winning streak. We’ll just have to see how long the suspension ends up being and whether the Browns can plug someone in at defensive end to keep their momentum rolling.