Myles Garrett got the punishment he deserved, but what about Mason Rudolph?
Myles Garrett has been suspended indefinitely by the NFL, while Mason Rudolph will continue to play.
The NFL acted swiftly in handing out punishments for the Myles Garrett-Mason Rudolph fight at the end of an otherwise drab Browns-Steelers game Thursday night.
The league handed out its punishments Friday. Unsurprisingly, Garrett will have to sit out for the rest of the season, at the very least, with the NFL suspending him indefinitely. Steelers C Maurkice Pouncey was given a three-game suspension for coming to Rudolph’s defense. Browns DT Larry Ogunjobi got a game for shoving the Steelers quarterback to the ground after the smoke cleared.
As for Rudolph, no punishment has been announced, which probably means he’ll avoid a suspension (but not a fine), which is… strange but not totally surprising.
Garrett got the punishment he deserved. Pouncey and Ogunjobi got suspensions that were a little harsh. The former was simply defending a teammate. The latter pushed a player to the ground and nothing else. That happens all the time and never results in a suspension. Rudolph not only started the fight but then escalated it after David DeCastro did a tremendous job of breaking it up.
If you are going to suspend Ogunjobi for pushing a player to the ground, Rudolph deserves a suspension as well.
(I think a fine would have been sufficient for both players.)
What Rudolph did in NO WAY excuses Garrett’s actions. But that goes both ways: Garrett’s actions do not excuse Rudolph for his role in the altercation, and without Rudolph overreacting to Garrett trying to tackle him because he hadn’t realized that the ball had been thrown yet, the altercation never happens. That’s not to say they share the same level of guilt for how ugly it got, but Rudolph played a role and deserves punishment for it. As much punishment as Ogunjobi does, at least.
It feels like Rudolph is escaping serious punishment simply because he isn’t as strong as Garrett. You have to wonder what would have happened if Rudolph had been able to yank Garrett’s helmet off. He wasn’t just trying to get a better look at his opponent’s face. Intent clearly matters, and Rudolph’s intentions were not good.
The optics were bad for the NFL after Thursday night, so it was best for the league to move quickly in this case, which it did. But these punishments only created more bad optics: The altercation involved four players. The three that have suspended are black. The one who escaped punishment, despite being the main instigator, was white. We’re going to need an explanation for that.
I know this is where I’ll lose the people who typically ignore matters of race, but it’s significant here. It’s hard to watch footage of the fight — which shows Rudolph trying to rip Garrett’s helmet off before kicking at his, um, groin region — and not think Rudolph’s privilege played some role in him avoiding a major punishment.
The NFL should not have had a hard time coming up with logical punishments for the parties involved, but, as we’ve seen numerous times over the last few years, the league has a way of making things harder than they have to be.