Myles Garrett may play for the Cleveland Browns, but his recent actions -- both off and on the field -- are emulating a former Pittsburgh Steeler who wreaked havoc on the football field but also faced the wrath of the NFL on multiple occasions over his playing career.
James Harrison, a former All-Pro pass rusher for the Pittsburgh Steelers, was once fined $125,000 for one season for hits deemed illegal by the NFL. Following in Harrison's footsteps is Garrett, a defensive standout who is currently second in the NFL with sacks through three games. While Garrett has become one of the league's best pass rushers, he has also become one of the NFL's most controversial players after receiving three fines totaling $52,639 for hits on New York Jets quarterback Trevor Siemian as well as his Week 1 hit on Tennessee Titans tight end Delanie Walker.
On Friday, two days before his Browns head to Baltimore to take on the defending AFC North champion Ravens, Garrett told reporters that he has appealed all three fines. He added that he will not change his style of play despite the fines.
"If I'm going to go out there and make some plays, make a lot of plays and at the backend I might get an unnecessary roughness every three or four games, I don't want to make it a habit, it's not something I want to do, but if that's what happens and I'm still making big plays consistently, I guess that's my toll," Garrett said, via Dan Labbe of Cleveland.com.
Garrett, just to make sure he got his point across, reinforced his intentions moving forward with regard to how he will continue to play on Sundays.
"I'm still going to play football the same way," he said.
When it comes to his hits on Siemian, Garrett said that he didn't intentionally mean to land on him or to hit him late. Garrett added that he hit Siemian in his chest, aka the "strike zone," in an attempt to avoid being flagged. Not only was he unsuccessful, Siemian sustained a serious injury on the second hit by Garrett during Cleveland's Week 2 victory.
"I know QBs have the most protection in the league, but at the same time, you've got to defend us as well," Garrett said. "You can't expect us to try and do every single thing to get out of the way of them and potentially risk hurting ourselves to try to keep him from touching the ground harder than laying a pillow on the bed."
Despite his objections, Garrett shouldn't expect the NFL to change their approach anytime soon with regard to protecting quarterbacks and offensive players in general. Given football's current climate of trying to make the game safer, the NFL will surely continue to strictly monitor and enforce the protection of all players, especially quarterbacks and other marquee stars.
While his fines are surely hurting his pocketbook, Garrett's fines are also the result of penalties that are part of the reason why the Browns are a disappointing 1-2 through three weeks. Cleveland has committed a league-high 35 penalties that include the third most presnap penalties in the NFL. The Browns were flagged a whopping 18 times in Week 1, nine times in Week 2 and eight times during last Sunday night's loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Harrison, despite his objections, did change his game later in his career to avoid receiving more fines from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. It will be interesting to see if Garrett, despite Friday's objections, eventually does the same.
