Jason Miller/Getty Images Mason Rudolph fights with Myles Garrett during the Steelers-Browns game on November 14, 2019.
The Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t scheduled to play the Cleveland Browns until Sunday October 18 at Heinz Field, but Browns defensive end Myles Garrett is already talking about Mason Rudolph and how the incident that occurred between them last season had him contemplating his football mortality.
On November 14, 2019—in the final seconds of the Browns’ 21-7 victory over the Steelers at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland—Garrett lost control, ripped off Rudolph’s helmet and smacked him over the head with it.
In the wake of the incident Garrett was suspended indefinitely by the NFL and missed the remainder of the 2019 season. In the meantime, he accused Rudolph of calling him a racial slur during the altercation—and then doubled-down on his accusation during a subsequent interview with ESPN, this after Rudolph vehemently denied the allegation, forcing him to do so again.
Myles Garrett Considered Quitting Football
In an interview with Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, Garrett says he seriously considered quitting football in the wake of what happened.
“I did,” he admitted to Cabot. “Whether it was because of their decision or my decision, it was whether this was going to continue,” a reference to the fact that his suspension was indefinite, though the NFL ended up reinstating him in February.
Moreover, Garrett said he would have been fine with leaving the game behind.
“I would’ve been OK,” he said. “I love football. I love competing. I love my teammates, and I definitely want to win, but at the end of the day, I’m still a guy. I’m still a young man who has a lot of life to live and my life is much more than football. I just would’ve moved onto something else I enjoy and found another way to save my competitive nature, whether it would have been trying out for a basketball team or going to play baseball like [Michael] Jordan.”
Never mind that Garrett received a five-year, $125 million contract extension from the Browns in July.
Myles Garrett Would Like a Face-To-Face With Mason Rudolph
During his interview with Mary Kay Cabot, Garrett also claimed he’d like to talk with the Steelers’ backup quarterback “man-to-man.”
“If it were to happen, I’d be fine with it,” Garrett told Cabot. “Not just fine, but I wouldn’t mind it and I’d be happy to make it happen, if there were a way. I’m not sure how I’d go about that, how I’d broach that. I’m not even sure if he’d want to do that but I wouldn’t have a problem sitting down with him and just not talking about the incident, just talking man-to-man, how we move forward, and just being better men and football players and not letting something like that happen again.
It’s worth noting, perhaps, that Garrett hasn’t made an attempt to reach out to Rudolph in the ten months since the incident made headlines and received media coverage that extended well beyond sports channels.
“I’ve been doing other things,” Garrett explained to Cabot. “There’s a lot going on in the world, so I’ve been trying to keep my focus on that. I don’t want to be focused on one thing. [If] I’m trying to communicate with him and I do it the wrong way and something is sparked all of a sudden, that wouldn’t be my intention.”
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