Cleveland Browns comments seemed insensitive after brawl with Steelers
By now everyone has seen the actions of Myles Garrett against Mason Rudolph on Thursday night. The Cleveland Browns didn’t make it any better with some of the things they said after the game.
What Myles Garrett did is inexcusable. We all know that and Cleveland Browns players seemed to know that. Not one Browns player said what he did was okay.
However, they did say some things that make you wonder if they fully understood the gravity of the situation of a player being hit in the head with a helmet. Not only that, but receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Diontae Johnson were knocked out of the game with concussions.
The attitude starts with the head coach and Freddie Kitchens seemed frustrated in his press conference when he said multiple times that he was embarrassed and he doesn’t coach his guys to do that.
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He was asked if he thought that his team was out of control and his response showed a complete lack of empathy, Kitchens said, “No, guys get helmet-to-helmet contacts every week.”
He may have been referring to the two hits that put out Johnson and Smith-Schuster, but those were nasty hits. Damarious Randall was ejected for his hit on Johnson, who had trouble getting to his feet and looked unstable going into the tent on the sideline.
Saying that players get hit helmet-to-helmet every week seems insensitive after one player literally hit somebody with their own helmet.
That is not something you should say as the voice of a football team. Everything about it was off, including his tone and demeanor. His frustration is warranted but that wasn’t the time to show it. His job is to throw water on the fire and he may have just fanned the flame.
Garrett’s attitude didn’t show very much regret either, he acted like he didn’t care that he could’ve seriously hurt somebody. It seemed like he was ready for reporters to move so he could go home and it would all be over, but it will be a long time before this is over.
Defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi is also getting criticism for some of his comments after the game. The one that stuck out to me is when he said he hit Mason Rudolph (after Garrett hit him with the helmet) because he was protecting his teammate.
There is no way he would’ve been protecting Garrett because Garrett was getting held down by David DeCastro and Maurkice Pouncey was kicking him in the head. He should have tried pulling those two guys off if he really wanted to protect his teammate.
This whole attitude has seemed to follow the Browns all season and the head coach is the most to blame for that. If you want to see an example of how a head coach should handle it, watch Mike Tomlin’s press conference.
The Browns are the most penalized team in football and these are the kinds of things that can happen when you create an undisciplined culture in the locker room, which is what Kitchens has done. That is not at all saying he coached them to rip off helmets and hit people with it.
Next. Myles Garrett missing the remainder of 2019 on the table. dark
That is saying that when you let things get out of control occasionally, this is what can happen. This incident and the team’s performance will put Kitchens’ job in jeopardy, whether you think it’s fair or not.