Indeed, we are fast approaching that one week mark when Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns played a game of ‘whack a mole’ with his helmet on Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Mason Rudolph.
Still, the Browns’ head coach Freddie Kitchens came out Monday to say he has Garrett’s back. Therefore, Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin spoke of the incident for the first time to the media on Tuesday
Mike Tomlin acknowledges the Steelers' role in Thursday's brawl, but suggested that the Browns started it https://t.co/JQHTvkPpha
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) November 19, 2019
Interestingly, Tomlin says the Steelers aren’t devoid from responsibility.
“It was ugly,” said Tomlin, who had refused to take any questions about the incident directly after the game. “It was ugly for the game of football. I think all of us that are involved in the game, particularly at this level, want to safeguard and protect the game, its integrity. And in that instance, it was compromised, obviously, with an unfortunate incident. None of us want those incidents to transpire. It did. We were a part of it. We accept responsibility for our actions within it.”
Equally important, Tomlin still holds the Browns mostly responsible for getting the party started.
“I don’t know,” Tomlin said. “You’ve got to ask those guys. … I don’t know that we did anything to make it happen in the first place. That’s why I said we didn’t have anything to learn from it.”
Finally, if you were watching the end of the Thursday Night Football broadcast, you saw Rudolph try to rip Garrett’s headgear off. That’s about as bright of an idea as slugging Garrett when posing for a selfie with him. Yet, both of those things still took place.
Still, there’s football for these teams in week 12; and they have to deal with what’s next on the schedule. In case you’re wondering, the re-match between these two is set for December 1st in Pittsburgh. Obviously, the Browns will be without Garrett for his role in the incident; which was not solely on him according to Tomlin.
