It’s been nearly one year since Myles Garrett and Mason Rudolph’s big brawl during “Thursday Night Football,” and the former is ready to mend fences.
As you likely remember, Garrett clobbered Rudolph over the head with his own helmet following one of the final plays of the Cleveland Browns’ Week 11 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The NFL suspended Garrett for the rest of the season as a result.
Garrett alleged Rudolph had directed a racial slur at him, sparking the altercation. But Rudolph repeatedly has denied the allegation.
The Browns and Steelers will meet for the first time this season Sunday afternoon at Heinz Field. It’ll be the first time Garrett and Rudolph have played in a game together since the incident, too.
Garret is willing to take the high road should there be an opportunity to make amends.
“If it were to happen, I’d be fine with it,” Garrett said, via the Browns. “Not just fine, but I wouldn’t mind it and I’d be happy to make it happen if there were a way. I’m not sure how I’d go about that, how I’d broach that.
“I’m not even sure if he’d want to do that, but I wouldn’t have a problem sitting down with him and just not talking about the incident, just talking man to man, how we move forward, and just being better men and football players and not letting something like that happen again.
“Whether we can do that, I’m not sure, but I’d be willing to extend the olive branch and make that happen.”
Does he think Rudolph’s claim that he never uttered a racial slur, though? That’s a little foggier. But he’s willing to look beyond the incident anyhow.
“It’d be like other instances where people agree to disagree,” Garrett said. “Just what I heard, just what you said you said and that’s what it is. If you say you didn’t say that, that’s OK, but that’s what I heard. It is what it is at the end of the day.
“We’re men and it shouldn’t be one situation that keeps you from respecting each other because you can’t look past that. If he wants to hold on to it, I’m not going to have any problems with him if he still has a problem with me.”
Sunday’s Browns-Steelers game kicks off at 1 p.m. ET.
