AFC North Notes: Myles Garrett, Browns, Steelers

Myles Garrett

NFL head of football operations Troy Vincent said the decision to suspend Browns DE Myles Garrett for the rest of the season was an easy one. Garrett was involved in a brawl between the Steelers and Browns on Thursday night that ended with him ripping off Steelers QB Mason Rudolph‘s helmet and clubbing him in the head with it. 

“That’s not us,” Vincent said via CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora. “That’s not who we are. There is no place for that in our game. We all know that. That, frankly, is an easy decision to suspend the player for the duration of the season … Imagine if he hit him with the crown of the helmet? We cannot have that on a football field.”

Jay Glazer of FOX Sports scheduled an interview with Garrett, but said the Browns prevented it from happening.

“Myles Garrett agreed to do a sitdown interview with me for today’s #FOXNFLSUNDAY about Thursday night,” Glazer tweets. “Shortly before we were heading to [the] airport we were informed Browns brass brought Garrett to the facility and told him [that he] cannot do the interview.”

A Browns spokesperson later told Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that they did not prohibit Garrett from doing the interview, but that they instead gave him advice and allowed him to make his own decision, which was ultimately to not do the interview.

• Garrett plans to argue in his appeal that the current CBA does not allow for indefinite suspensions for on-field acts. (Ian Rapoport)
• Garrett was initially scheduled to be interviewed by Fox Sports about the situation before the Browns called him into the facility and vetoed it. (Jay Glazer)

Browns

• Per Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot, Browns WR Odell Beckham believes he’s being targeted by the NFL’s random drug testing program after being asked to come in twice in one week for tests for performance-enhancing drugs: “Nobody is getting tested like me. I know people who didn’t get tested for five months in the offseason and I’m getting tested every time.”
• NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said in a statement that testing is overseen by an independent administrator and neither the NFL nor NFLPA are involved in the random selection of players for testing. 
• The NFLPA declined comment on Beckham’s concerns.

Steelers

The NFL made the decision to suspend Steelers C Maurkice Pouncey for punching and kicking Browns DE Myles Garrett after he’d swung a helmet at QB Mason Rudolph. While current and former NFL players lauded Pouncey for defending his teammate, NFL head of football operations Troy Vincent said the league suspended Pouncey for crossing a clear line. 

“It’s about the choice the player made,” Vincent said via CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora. “It’s about the action itself. What did he do and what could he have done? It’s not the result, or intent, it’s what did he do. Look at what 66 (G David DeCastro) and 71 (OT Matt Feiler) did, and then compare that to 53 (Pouncey). He made multiple attempts to strike at and potentially injure another player.”

• Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the fine schedule calls for Rudolph to be fined $35,096 for a first-time fighting offense.