Cleveland Browns Football Player Dodges Bullet
Here is a simplified version of the FACTS
Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett was involved in an ugly brawl with Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph in the closing seconds of their game Thursday night.
The fight occurred after Rudolph had thrown a short pass, and after Garrett rushed him and tackled him to the ground. The two then began to scuffle and in the melee, Garrett lost his temper and ripped Rudolph’s helmet off his head and hit him in the head with it.
Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Rudolph says “Bush League”.
His vaunted coach Mike Tomlin has no comment.
Myles Garrett is apologetic.
Browns Coach Freddie Kitchens asserts he does not coach dirty play.
Commentators weigh in, some going as far as calling for criminal liability. They are out of line, exacerbating, taking further cheap shots, grandstanding and looking to make headlines at the expense of an obviously repentant player who made a huge mistake in the heat of the moment… which may have been a moment of actual (unfortunate and remorseful) blind rage.
The Browns player are not deliberately dirty.
They are, as all NFL football players must be, aggressive…and sometimes overly so. It is a violent game.
As a Browns fan, with no special expertise, but with definite familiarity with the Brown’s style of play (the much maligned “mistake and penalty inclined Browns), I attribute their “penalty propensity” to poor coaching that fails to properly instill mental discipline.
The co-equal villain in this in this unfortunate episode is lack of mental discipline and stupidity on the part of the coaches… from both teams.
This is not to excuse Myles Garrett, with whose personality or background I am not familiar, but who does seem to NOT be a hot head. But I do understand uncontrolled over-reaction in the heat of a moment…especially where there appeared to be a bit of instigation initiated by the victim.
Critics of Miles Garrett need to remember that like all NFL players, he has conditioned his body to go full throttle; his muscles are conditioned to call on every fiber to contort in such a way as to get optimal efficiency to achieve a certain goal, whether it be to catch a contested ball in flight or make a block or make a tackle. Such “hand-eye co-ordination” requires great mental discipline to accompany the “instinctive muscle memory” which each athlete has developed through hours of grueling, repetitive practice.
Into this mix, the coach must demand a certain mind set, a special kind of mental discipline which requires a mental reminder for every player on every play… that he must make the slight physical adjustment to avoid committing any violation of any new physical restraints implemented by new safety rules… whether it is “helmet to helmet” contact or (going back further in time) blind side “crack back blocks” (or even further in time) no “clothes line” type tackles. Each new rule requires an adjustment in the players physical techniques…and the Browns coaching staff has been miserably lacking in getting their players up to speed.
So, I mention this to emphasize that the Browns’ excess tendencies for penalties is more a function of sloppiness from poor coaching versus deliberate intent to hurt or intimidate.
So why I am a citing the coaching staffs on both side for contributory negligence.
1. Pittsburgh, “no comment’ coach Mike Tomlin: I must call you out and demand an answer to the question, “Why are you running an actual play with 10 seconds left in a game whose outcome is already decided. Please explain in detail the rationale for not doing the typical “knee down-no play” option to avoid any pointless further contact done 999 time out of 1000 in all NFL games. There is no good reason at this point in a game to run an actual play. Your answer, please! A no comment answer will be interpreted as an acknowledgement of complicity in the eventual bad outcome. That is coaching contributory negligence.
2. Cleveland Browns Coach Kichens: “Why are you not coaching a corresponding lax defense to a no meaning last play, even a Pittsburgh play that was stupidly called by Tomlin? Why even have your starting players on the field at this time exposed to the kind of risk that actually materialized? There can be no good reason…and oversight is not a sufficient answer or excuse…especially at the salary you are getting paid to teach “MENTAL DISCCIPLINE.
Myles Garrett will pay a substantial penalty, justifiably. Probably suspension for the rest of the season. And I think that he will learn a valuable lesson and go on to have a great career with no more of these undisciplined, uncontrolled angry outbursts…grateful for his good luck that nobody was seriously hurt. Persons who dodge a bullet tend to learn from these types of experiences which go into the department of “There but for fortune”.
I hope the coaches learn the same lesson.
