On the bye week, the Pittsburgh Steelers earned the right to relish in their victory against the Cleveland Browns. Yet, Steelers players appear to have moved on to enjoy the bye before their next key AFC North matchup.
Instead, it’s the Browns still talking to reporters about the Week 8 drubbing at the hands of the Steelers. Specifically, Browns edge rusher Jared Verse again discussed the body slam he received from Steelers guard Mason McCormick on Thursday.
“To be quite honest with you, that was the play that made me got me to be really angry. I was genuinely upset about the game, the way things were moving,” Verse said to reporters, via 92.3 The Fan’s Daryl Ruiter. “But at that point, it became really deep. You’re doing dirty [expletive]. You’re going to try to sweep my legs out.
“That honestly could have put me in a position to not be able to finish the season, put me in a position to change my life in a very bad aspect. That upset me.”
That was just the beginning of Verse addressing the play once more. The Browns edge rusher then said he wasn’t pleased about how his teammates treated the body slam.
“The lack of reaction by those around me had upset me a lot. Not in the aspect of anybody, you know, we’re focused on the game and everything like that. But a similar play happened to Derek Barnett on the next field goal, and I spasmed. I lost it.
“Because it was my brothers, it was my teammates. When you do something like that to them, it upsets me very deeply.
“So I could tell from that point on, we have to be better. We have to get better on every aspect of the game of being mental aware of these are my teammates, these are my brothers and we’re not fighting for each other. We’re just kind of focused on the one aspect of the game.”
What Did Steelers’ Mason McCormick Do to Jared Verse?
On the play Verse was referring to, Verse tried to go high against McCormick on a Chris Boswell field-goal attempt. In response, McCormick twisted Verse on his side in midair and then body slammed him to the ground.
McCormick received a 15-yard penalty for the action, which was deserved. It was unnecessary roughness on McCormick.
But unnecessary roughness does happen quite often in the NFL. Verse had also already addressed the play after the game.
“To do something like that — I can’t have respect for anything like that,” Verse told reporters.
By the rule of law, McCormick’s body slam was dirty. It drew a penalty. But not every former football player was as outraged as Verse and Browns fans.
In fact, former Browns offensive lineman Jason Pinkston called McCormick’s body slam textbook line play.
“Browns fans … I love y’all, but what Mason McCormick did to Jared Verse was NOT dirty at all! As an offensive lineman, you’re taught from day one that if a defensive player leaves his feet and jumps, YOU DUMP HIM!” Pinkston wrote.
“That’s Offensive Line 101.”
Verse Calls out Teammates for Reaction to Body Slam
After finishing his initial answer Thursday on the McCormick body slam, Verse faced a follow-up question about his teammates response to the play.
Verse told reporters that had already been addressed. To the edge rusher’s credit, he also shared that he should have told his teammates that he was going to trash-talk the Steelers before the game as he did last week.
“I made my concerns known. I made my issues known about the situation. But also, I didn’t put them in a position to let them know that I was going to talk the way I talked to the Steelers,” added Verse.
“I gotta be better. I didn’t do enough on my part, and we all gotta pick it up.”
Even still, it will be interesting to see how other Browns players react to Verse telling the media about his displeasure with his teammates. One could argue the edge rusher could have kept the fact those conversations occurred private.
Over the past week, Verse potentially made his teammate’s jobs more difficult by giving the Steelers bulletin board material before the Week 8 matchup. Those teammates will now have to answer about how they didn’t come to his defense against McCormick after the body slam.
Jared Verse Sounds Off Again on ‘Dirty’ Body Slam in Steelers-Brown Matchup