MYLES GARRETT PUNCHED ALL OF US

By STEVE KING

I would like to say to Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, “Thanks. Yes, thanks a lot.”

And I want my sarcasm to drip out of my each and every word, so much so that he would know full what I was talking about, and how I felt.

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Beating the Pittsburgh Steelers, as the Browns did pretty much from start to finish in gaining a 21-7 decision on Thursday Night Football at FirstEnergy Stadium, is a big deal. It’s always a big deal – a huge, huge deal, sometimes even a seminal moment, as this one was since it saved the Browns’ season and gave them hope for these final seven games – when a team beats its hated arch rival.

And let’s be clear, when your team beats that rival, you want to see it beat that club up physically. And the Browns did that defensively, controlling the line of scrimmage and every other part of the field, really, harassing young quarterback Mason Rudolph so much that he threw four interceptions.

But that’s where it ends – in terms of football, that is. It shouldn’t – actually, it can’t – go any further than that.

It did, though, on Thursday night. It took until the final eight seconds for it to happen, but that doesn’t matter because it happened nonetheless. Whether it be the last part of the game, the beginning, the middle or at some other point, is immaterial.

In fact, that it happened in the final seconds makes it just that much worse because it’s what everybody is thinking about concerning the game. It’s their last image of that night.

They’re not thinking about the fact that the Browns won, beating the Steelers for the first time in five years, Instead, they’re thinking about – and condemning – what Garrett did by ripping off Rudolph’s helmet and then punching him with it, provoking a benches-clearing brawl.

As such then, Garrett robbed the Browns fans – and me, along with many others who kind of stand off in the periphery in the media – of the joy that would normally come with such a big victory. Media guys get tired about writing about losing all the time. It even robbed some of us – including me – of sleep. It was the last thing I thought about before I nodded off early Friday night, and the first thing I thought of when I opened my eyes just a few hours later.

Myles Garrett doesn’t have the right to do that. We were all here before he came to Cleveland, and we’ll be here long after he leaves.

Yes, thanks, Myles Garrett.

Thanks for nothing.