Getty Images Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns.
Myles Garrett is happy he and the Cleveland Browns defense will be seeing JuJu Smith-Schuster twice a season for at least one more year.
Smith-Schuster announced his free agency decision on social media, using a video from the Wolf of Wallstreet to assure “he’s not f—ing leaving.”
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“This is my home, they’re gonna need a wrecking ball to take me outta here!” Smith-Schuster wrote in the caption. “PITTSBURGH I LOVE YOU, LET’S GO!!!!!”
Garrett was among those to respond, telling Smith-Schuster in the comments “Glad you’re staying in the north,” with emojis of two cars. That’s likely a reference to the Corvette Corvette song Smith-Schuster famously danced to on social media and the Browns have trolled him with since.
Smith-Schuster signed a one-year deal with the Steelers, reportedly turning down more money elsewhere. Smith-Schuster’s $8 million contract with the team that drafted him has a $7 million signing bonus, $1 million base salary and four void years, per ESPN’s Field Yates.
JuJu Smith-Schuster Has History With Browns
GettyJuJu Smith-Schuster of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Prior to the Browns playoff matchup with the Steelers, a statement from Smith-Schuster’s became a rallying cry for the Browns and their fans.
“I think they’re still the same Browns teams I play every year,” Smith-Schuster said this week. “I think they’re nameless gray faces. They have a couple good players on their team, but at the end of the day, I don’t know. The Browns is the Browns.”
Cleveland went on to win its first playoff game in over a quarter-century, shellacking the Steelers behind a 35-point first half. The Browns went on to win 48-37 and Garrett admitted in his postgame press conference that the statement fired up the team.
“Any talk like that is going to be disrespectful to any team, and we didn’t appreciate it,” Garrett told reporters. “I think we made that known with our performance by getting this big win in their house.”
Smith-Schuster, who was scolded for dancing on opponents’ logos prior to games during the season, did not regret the comment.
“I don’t regret saying what I said,” Smith-Schuster told reporters. “Today wasn’t our night. Hopefully the same Browns show up against the next opponent and do what they did tonight and have a great game.”
Steelers Ripped Browns for Bring ‘Disrespectful’
The Browns got the best of the Steelers in the playoff matchup, but the war of words extended far after the final whistle. Smith-Schuster’s teammate Chase Claypool called the Browns “classless’ after the game for trolling his fellow pass-catcher.
“They were just super classless, you know against JuJu, towards JuJu what they were saying on the field towards the end of the game, so I’m not going to have respect for a team that doesn’t have respect for us.”
The playoff matchup combined with the incident between Garrett and Mason Rudolph in 2019 and lots of trash talk has taken the rivalry to a level it hasn’t seen in decades. Luckily, the teams get to see each other twice, and possibly three times if the season plays out like last year.
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Browns Star Myles Garrett Trolls JuJu Smith-Schuster