Pending his appeal on Wednesday, Cleveland Browns defender Myles Garrett will be absent for the remainder of the 2019 season, the playoffs, and an undetermined number of games in the future. This is an unprecedented suspension for an NFL player based on something that occurred on the field, but NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has now explained this decision. He said there was no place in the game for what Garrett did last Thursday night.
Speaking to Gary Myers of OTG, Goodell explained that Garrett using Mason Rudolph’s helmet to club him over the head was completely unacceptable. Suspending the defender, along with Browns defensive end Larry Ogunjobi and Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey was the way to make this point very clear.
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“He will not play the rest of the season,” Goodell said to Myers. “He will probably meet with us sometime in the offseason. We’ll make a judgment. … Does he have remorse? Does he understand why it’s not acceptable? Do we understand what he’s going to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?”
While Goodell does not expect to meet with Garrett before the season’s end, the Browns’ defender will soon be making his way to New York and the league offices. It was announced on Monday morning that Garrett will be appealing his indefinite suspension. To do so, he will fly to New York and meet with the jointly-appointed appeals officer in James Thrash.
He may not be able to convince Thrash to overturn the suspension, but Garrett will have the hope of turning this into a finite number of games that he will miss due to his involvement in last Thursday’s brawl between the Browns and the Steelers.
As NFL insider Ian Rapoport reported on Nov. 17, the Collective Bargaining Agreement does not allow for indefinite suspensions based on something that occurred on the football field. This piece of information will likely lead to the argument that Garrett needs to have a finite suspension that provides a definitive list of games that he will miss.
Ultimately, Goodell wants to see that Garrett has remorse for his actions and is willing to move on from the incident on Thursday. This will be the biggest factor in whether or not he is reinstated for the 2020 season. The NFL is trying to emphasize player safety and having this brawl take place during primetime went against the goals of the league.
(Photo Credit: Andy Lyons/Getty)
