Why?

If you ever played organized football in a park district league, high school, college or any level, I’m sure many of you have stories about the scuffles, fights and confrontations. It’s football, it comes with the game itself. I played and I’ve had my share. The sports news has been buzzing all day long about the Cleveland Browns defensive player, Myles Garrett. Although the Browns won the football game, they continue to have that dark cloud hovering over them. It never ends, right? As the game was getting ready to end, the Steelers and Browns got into a huge brawl. Myles and Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph got tangled up in a scuffle (if that’s what you want to call it). Myles then grabbed the helmet off the head of Mason and proceeded to hit his unprotected head with the helmet which led to flags being thrown all over the place. The minute I saw the incident take place; I knew he’d be done for. Today, the NFL has decided to suspend Myles Garrett indefinitely without pay which I’m thinking will be for the remainder of the season.

I’ve been around the game of football for quite some time. I played it growing up and I’ve been fortunate to analyze this great sport for nine years now. I’ve never seen a brawl get that out of hand nor have I seen a player take another players helmet and use it as a weapon. After this all took place, I immediately tweeted that Myles Garrett needs to be suspended for a season’s worth of football games which would be the final six of this season and the first ten games of the 2020 season. That calls for 16 games. Or, the league can really send a strong message by suspending him all next year too which I would be on board with because there is simply no need for that in our great game. To hit someone who just got back on the field after suffering a concussion is mind boggling to me. I get that Mason wasn’t innocent in this either because he did look to attempt to grab Myles and I believe I saw him try to kick him as well. But what Myles did was completely overboard, there’s no other way around it. I’ve seen this being discussed on social media all day with mixed reviews about what took place. Do I feel Mason should’ve been suspended as well? That’s a debatable possibility because he was involved, but he didn’t intend to injure. Myles did which is why he’s potentially done for the remainder of the season. Is Myles wrong for wanting to defend himself? Absolutely not. I don’t know what was said that got him so frustrated. I wasn’t on the field so it’s tough to say. Was he wrong with how he defended himself? Absolutely. There was no need for that act to take place. This entire brawl could’ve easily been avoided if you ask me.

With this happening, one thing came to my mind. The Cleveland Browns have a lack of leadership. When you look at many football teams nowadays, there’s always that one veteran that can pull a player aside to help straighten him out. I can’t imagine this happening with the Giants back during the Michael Strahan days. Michael was a leader who everyone listened to when he spoke. I don’t see this happening in Baltimore in the Ray Lewis era. Ray was always that mentor/older brother not just to his teammates, but other players who needed some guidance. Just think if something like this were to take place with the New England Patriots, Myles would’ve been released by the team the next day. That lack of leadership is extremely concerning to me in Cleveland. The one thing I will say that I admire are the comments of Baker Mayfield and Odell Beckham. Baker gets a lot of criticism for how he handles himself as has Odell for his antics back to his days with the Giants. It’s a start, but there needs to be more