Myles Garrett, defensive end for the Cleveland Browns, 2017 #1 overall pick, one of the best young talents the league has to offer, has taken quite a swing in the public eye (no pun intended)
Garrett appealed the indefinite which is now a 6 game season ending suspension. It was met with similar force as his actions.
Super Bowl Sunday passed about a week and a half ago and now that the NFL has some down time, they along with Myles Garrett decided to have a meeting at the league’s headquarters to discuss a potential reinstatement. The precedent the league had to go on was the handling of the Albert Haynesworth incident in 2006, a verdict of 5 games. During today’s meeting, the league viewed that was a fair precedent set.
The fan reaction is very split, with fans ranging from total praise to complete and utter criticism of the league’s decision.
Going back to the tweet regarding Kaepernick, it seems to be another one of those issues where we don’t seem to know all of the facts but nevertheless people are going to take sides and over-blame one side or the other. The reason people want to have more sympathy for Garrett is due to an allegation he brought to light the next day saying that Mason Rudolph had used a racial slur which had provoked him to get that upset.
The league investigated that allegation as a part of their investigation into the entire incident, but found nothing. Mason Rudolph obviously agreed.
This is something that people seemed to take great offense to when the findings were discovered, with the added defamation of Mason Rudolph seeming to make them more hateful of the Browns defensive power.
Other people still think this isn’t a big deal at all and people are blowing it out of proportion.
There’s no way to win on this issue, that’s where it draws similarities to Kaepernick. The difference with this one though is that we in fact WILL get to see the player at the center of the controversy the year following his said controversy. Myles Garrett will suit up in the orange and brown, and the Browns will try to get the camel off their back.
Zach's Blog for Journalism 