Many people have been skeptical of Myles Garrett’s claim that Mason Rudolph called him a racial slur in part because the accusation did not come out until a week after the two players got into an altercation, but apparently Garrett first brought it up immediately after the Pittsburgh Steelers-Cleveland Browns game.
Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reported on Sunday that he knew about Garrett’s allegation the night of the game. He said the Browns were aware of it on Friday, and that was one of the reasons the team did not grant Garrett permission to sit down for an interview with Glazer last weekend. You can see the relevant portion of the report at the 42-second mark below:
Here's the video report.pic.twitter.com/aOZf6mN38D
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 24, 2019
“The Browns, I think, were very nervous that he was going to reveal this in the interview with me on Sunday,” Glazer said. “Just talking to Myles, I was trying to get out of him whether or not he would confirm it for me. I got the sense that he wasn’t going to and didn’t want it out publicly because it would be bad for the league. He just thought it was going to be confidential inside of that appeals process.”
If Garrett truly did hear or believed he heard Rudolph use a racial slur, it is shocking that he was so determined to keep it under wraps in the best interest of the NFL. The Browns star was immediately painted as a villain for the way he bashed Rudolph in the head with a helmet, and that would have helped explain why he lost his cool. Also, why would the Browns force their player to keep quiet after he was a victim of racism? That seems like the type of demand or request that could potentially ruin the relationship between a team and star player.
There has been some talk that perhaps the NFL tried to cover for Rudolph, and the way they determined that Garrett’s allegation was untrue has created a lot of skepticism. Still, it is shocking that Garrett chose to remain private if what he said was true.
