CLEVELAND -- Mason Rudolph stepped out from behind the double-doors, slung his black leather bag over his left shoulder, and began striding toward the team bus.
This was midnight Thursday, down in the bowels of FirstEnergy Stadium, just outside the Steelers' locker room. The game had just ended. The fight had just ended. All the questions about the game and the fight had just ended. And all that was left now was to board up and head back down the Turnpike.
It was then that one of those silent motorized carts whisked up next to Rudolph. The driver, a team employee who evidently was aware of the kind of evening his quarterback had just endured, offered a lift to cover the 400-plus feet to the loading dock.
Rudolph crinkled his nose slightly, almost playfully, as if to decline.
"You sure?" the driver came back. "You OK?"
This time, Rudolph's reply was verbal.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Really. Thanks, man."
With that, he kept right on. And I'll emphasize anew: He was striding. Not dragging or moping. Strong gait. Shoulders square. Chin high.
Look, I don't know, either. I don't know if he's the franchise quarterback of the future. None of us can know that. Maybe none of us should know that right now since, circumstances be damned, it's unsettling to see the player at the most important position perform at this level -- 23 of 44, 221 yards, four interceptions and sacks each -- in an already lousy, 21-7 loss to the bleeping Browns.
In the same breath, I can say this with conviction: I've never felt more certain that he's the quarterback of the present. And the present, right now, is all that matters.
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The NFL must suspend Myles Garrett for the remainder of the season.
I mean, that barely qualifies as opinion. It's more a simple matter of precedent, one that Roger Goodell and the league now need to ... well, obliterate since it's arguably the ugliest single act of random, outside-the game violence in the modern era of football.
For anyone who hasn't seen it, despite the national broadcast and tons of additional attention in the aftermath, this was with eight ticks left on the clock of an already decided outcome:
Think my context is over-the-top?
OK, even setting aside the universal outcry already being heard across the football world, go ahead and top it.
How about back in 2006, when the Titans' Albert Haynesworth, also a defensive lineman, tore the helmet off the Cowboys' center, Andre Gurode, then kicked his face to cause a 30-stitch cut?
That brought a five-game suspension that, remarkably, remains the longest in league history for a single incident.
Beyond that, every other incident most anyone could cite -- even those of the heinous Vontaze Burfict -- at least occurred within the whistles of the game. Jack Tatum's infamous hit that paralyzed Darryl Stingley in 1978. Chuck Bednarik's clothesline that KO'd Frank Gifford way back in 1960. Both within the whistles.
This ... this was more akin to a crime.
The Steelers' locker room was as rattled as I could ever recall experiencing, partly by the loss but far, far more by the finish. Players who weren't fuming in front of cameras and microphones were fuming to each other.
"There's no place in football for that," T.J. Watt told me. "Heck, it wasn't even a football play."
Joe Haden: "I've never seen anything like it. We all talk about player safety, and that was… just crazy.”
Alejandro Villanueva: "We couldn't have seen that coming. We've always had a lot of respect for the Browns, and I feel like they've respected us. But this was out of hand and not a good look for the sport. It's awful."
David DeCastro: "It was just stupid, man. He's too good of a player to be doing s--- like that. It's just senseless. The whole nation will be watching to see how the NFL handles it.”
Maurkice Pouncey: "Man, he could've killed him. What if he'd hit him in the temple? Let's be serious."
Fine, let's do that with a serious review.
Garrett took down Rudolph after a short pass, then stayed on top of Rudolph a second or so longer than the norm. The two started wrestling and grabbing each other's heads, with Rudolph at one stage nearly getting Garrett's helmet off:
DeCastro and Matt Feiler moved to Rudolph's defense, but Garrett reached through, tore off Rudolph's helmet and whacked him over the head. Rudolph was stunned for no more than an instant before raising both arms to protest.
That was when Pouncey leaped on Garrett, landed several punches and kicked once toward his head:
As Rudolph watched that, Larry Ogunjobi, another Cleveland defensive lineman, arrived to blindside him:
At which point players from both sidelines poured onto the field, albeit without further incident. Mike Tomlin and Freddie Kitchens met near midfield, then immediately began urging calm.
Garrett's role is clear. And again, so should be the scope of his suspension. It feels insulting to expound on this further.
Pouncey will get some, too. Regardless of what set him off, his response was beyond what's acceptable, and he knows it.
Also, he couldn't care less.
"My man got hit with a helmet," Pouncey replied to a question on that count. "I mean, I'll accept whatever penalty I get."
And could he recall getting that angry in his lifetime as a football player?
"Naw. Honestly, I blacked out. I'm not even sure I remember it."
Not surprisingly, no one spoke more forcefully than Cam Heyward. And not just to reporters. Once the melee had muddled, he walked over toward the Cleveland sideline and delivered a message, first to Baker Mayfield, as captured by our Matt Sunday ...
MATT SUNDAY / DKPS... then to anyone who'd listen.
"I told those players on that other side, 'Y'all better handle that. I don't care who's out there. We all play this game. We all work for it. For someone to use a helmet as a weapon, it's uncalled for.’”
Watch his raw emotion as I asked a follow-up about such accountability:
He then glanced around the media crowd and stated, "I know y'all gotta ask me questions, but he's gotta answer for that."
Which he did.
Not going to lie here, but I'd been sure the Cleveland media relations officials would keep Garrett from speaking. But, he did.
"I made a mistake, I lost my cool, and I regret it," Garrett said. "It's going to come back to hurt our team. The guys who jumped into the scrum ... I appreciate the team having my back, but it should never get that far. That's on me."
Anyone else not find an apology in there?
Meaning to Rudolph, not to his teammates. Because all I could pick up was someone saying what he thought his teammates would want to hear after they'd rightly let him have it.
And based on what was heard from the Browns afterward, even if there were two other egregious helmet-to-helmet hits on this night, I genuinely believe that was the case.
"At no time and under no circumstances do we want anything to do with anything like that," a visibly shaken Kitchens offered on his own right up front in his press conference. "I'm embarrassed. Myles is embarrassed. It's not good. He understands what he did. He understands it's totally unacceptable."
That's not damage control.
Neither was it when, around the Browns' room, Jarvis Landry also used the word "embarrassing." And Odell Beckham Jr. used "ugly." And Mayfield, maybe influenced by Heyward but maybe not, would say, "It’s inexcusable. I don’t care, rivalry or not, we can’t do that. It’s inexcusable. He knows that. I hope he does now. It’s tough. We’ll see."
Teammates tearing into a teammate?
That's definitely not damage control.
And yeah, we'll see. Both about Garrett and Goodell.
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Which swings me back to Rudolph.
Two representatives of the Steelers spoke in the designated press conference area. One was Tomlin, who refused to speak to the matter. Asked once, twice, then a third time, he snapped to the last of those questions, "No more questions regarding that because I'm saying nothing."
Wow. That's too bad. It's standard personal policy for him to avoid addressing such matters, but this was anything but a standard scene. It was extraordinary. And he prioritized one of his many petty behavioral foibles with the press over that.
The other representative to come to the room was, as usual, the quarterback. And he didn't come close to holding back.
"I thought it was pretty cowardly," Rudolph said. "Bush league."
And when asked if Garrett should be suspended, Rudolph doubled down, presumably just in case he wasn't heard the first time: "I don't know what the rules are. I know it was bush league and a total coward move on his part. It's OK. I'll take it. I'm not going back down from any bully out there. We'll see what happens."
Watch the full session. It's worth it:
That's how it's done. Good for him.
And you know what?
Good for him for all of this. Because if anyone watched that game through any prism beyond a drunken stupor, seeing Rudolph's top three options -- James Conner, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Diontae Johnson -- all lost to injury, seeing his offensive line constantly collapse his pocket, seeing him seeking out targets who'd been on the practice squad earlier in the day, seeing him record ace tackles on two of those four interceptions when he could have pouted ... and they're blaming or burying the quarterback ... yeah, I've got nothing.
This kid's tough as hell. He made too many bad passes among the good. He didn't do nearly enough to help the Steelers to what would've been his fifth win when starting and finishing a game. But he'll rebound. He'll be better.
If anyone doesn't believe that, I've got 52 big dudes ready to argue back with their own gait and no shortage of gusto.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers at Browns, Cleveland, Nov. 14, 2019 -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS
