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On Monday, Myles Garrett turned plenty of heads when he apparently attempted to remove Mason Rudolph’s after tearing off the quarterback’s helmet and swinging at him in the closing seconds of the game between the Steelers and the Browns.
While Rudolph certainly had a hand (or, more accurately, a foot) in escalating things, Garrett’s actions were pretty indefensible and he paid the price, as it didn’t take long for the NFL to announce it would be suspending him for the rest of the season (Rudolph would be hit with a fine for his troubles).
On Wednesday, Garrett got the chance to plead his case when he met with the NFL to appeal his punishment and dropped a bomb when he accused Rudolph of throwing a racial slur in his direction—a claim that the quarterback’s attorney swiftly denied.
If you think it’s a little odd this allegation didn’t come to light sooner than it did, you should know you’re not alone and that you’re not the only person who was caught off guard by it, as both Baker Mayfield and Sheldon Richardson said their teammate neglected to mention it to them before they were informed of the development on Thursday.
However, that doesn’t mean Garrett doesn’t have the support of some of his teammates, as both Joel Bitonio and Odell Beckham Jr. said they had no reason to think Garrett would make something like this up.
As of right now, this is a vintage “he said, he said” situation and it’s kind of useless to speculate on who’s telling the truth until some solid evidence comes to light. However, it is kind of bizarre that Garrett would keep this a secret from his teammates and take as long as he did to bring up the accusation.