The Cleveland Browns toured the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a team on Wednesday, but star defensive lineman Myles Garrett did not join them for the visit.
The Browns practiced at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium on Wednesday, and took a brief tour of the hall afterward. Garrett, however, was not with the team for a good reason. The defensive lineman has long maintained that he does not want to set foot in the Hall of Fame unless he were to be inducted. According to Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal, the Browns honored that desire and did not force Garrett to join the team for the visit.
Garrett actually laid out his stance as a rookie, so this is nothing new. He asserted it again last week, though he did leave some wiggle room in case the team mandated his attendance.
“Honestly, I don’t want to go,” Garrett said last Friday. “I’ve kept myself from going because I don’t want to go until I’m in it. Until I have my face in it, I don’t want to go. If we go as a team and Kevin [Stefanski] says, ‘I want you to go,’ that’s fair play. But I’m not trying to go until they have me in there for good.”
Garrett is certainly playing well enough to give himself a chance at enshrinement. With 58.5 sacks in five seasons, he has established himself as one of the game’s best pass rushers, and he is still just 26. He has a good chance of making it to Canton if he remains healthy and productive.
There are other players who maintain similar policies to Garrett, albeit with different motives.
