Mason Rudolph spoke with the media on Wednesday for the first time since his infamous altercation with Myles Garrett last week, and one of the best players in Cleveland Browns history was not impressed with the way the Pittsburgh Steelers handled the situation.
Rudolph began by reading a prepared statement, in which he apologized for his role in the scrum that broke out and said he should have done a better job of keeping his cool. He also explained that he became angry with what he felt was a late hit from Garrett in a game where the Steelers had already lost two offensive players to injury. Both players, receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Diontae Johnson, landed in the NFL’s concussion protocol after taking helmet-to-helmet hits.
Browns cornerback Damarious Randall was ejected for the hit on Johnson. Smith-Schuster was actually hit in the head by two defenders, but there was no targeting call. In his statement Wednesday, Rudolph said the Steelers had “already lost two of our players to targeting penalties.” Former Browns Pro Bowl offensive lineman Joe Thomas criticized Rudolph and the Steelers for taking nearly a week to release a statement that was factually inaccurate.
If we’re going to do prepared statement apologies 6 days after an incident, wouldn’t the statement being accurate be somewhat important? I mean, they had 6 days to come up with this statement and this is the best they can do? https://t.co/0KM0xkiiEC
— Joe Thomas (@joethomas73) November 20, 2019
It’s possible Rudolph simply misspoke, and there probably should have been a penalty on the Smith-Schuster play anyway. No one is saying Rudolph was totally innocent in the matter, but any commentary that strives to place blame on Rudolph or the Steelers is really missing the mark.
Even if Rudolph’s reaction to being taken down late by Garrett sparked the confrontation, Garrett is the one who clubbed Rudolph in the head with a helmet. Thomas and others can criticize Rudolph all they want, but even Garrett’s own teammates and organization didn’t consider coming to his defense. What Garrett did could have left someone severely injured. That’s why he likely will not be playing again in 2019.
