Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy says that no matter what Browns defensive end Myles Garrett heard Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph say, Garrett lost any moral high ground when he ripped Rudolph’s helmet off and hit him over the head.
Garrett says that Rudolph uttered a racial slur on the field, which Rudolph denied. Dungy said this morning on PFT Live that whoever is telling the truth, Garrett should be judged by his actions.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have sympathy with Myles Garrett if in fact that is what happened,” Dungy said. “If we’re in the bottom of the pile and Mason Rudolph is kneeing you in the groin or he’s trying to poke your eye out or he’s twisting your knee, something that’s going to affect your ability to do your work and your career, then, yeah, you can go off. But you can’t go off because somebody said something to you. All kinds of things get said out there on the field. There’s four-letter words. In this case it may have been a six-letter word, a multi-syllable word. All of that happens. I can’t go off and jeopardize my team’s chances to go to the playoffs, my career, my ability to make money because somebody called me a name. I don’t care what name he said, that is not an excuse to me.”
Dungy, who played three seasons in the NFL, said that if he had been in the situation Garrett described, he would have told the opposing player after the game that he didn’t appreciate it, but not done anything to get himself penalized during the game and suspended afterward.
“You talk to him after the game,” Dungy said. “You don’t go off, blow a circuit and give up six games of your career.”