GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota — The NFL has taken swift and severe steps against the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers players involved in a brutal brawl near the end of Thursday Night Football, with the league saying there's no place for this type of behavior in football.
In the closing seconds, Browns defensive end Myles Garrett ripped off Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph's helmet, and used it to hit Rudolph over the head.
The NFL suspended Garrett for the rest of the season without pay.
"There is still no excuse for what happened last night. Absolutely none," said KARE 11 anchor Randy Shaver. "What the NFL did today was the right thing to do."
Both organizations have been fined $250,000.
Online, there has been mixed reaction about the punishment, with sports analyst and former player Deion Sanders writing in part, "Rudolph should be significantly fined as well for trying to rip @MylesLGarrett helment off his head which ignited the retaliation."
"But the QB did instigate a little bit of what happened," Shaver said. "There isn't any question about that either. Cooler heads have to prevail."
"You know, I made a mistake. I lost my cool, and I regret it," Garrett said after the game. "The guys who jumped into the scrum, I appreciate my team having my back, but it should have never got to that point. That's on me."
"The game is full of so much emotion, at a level we can't even comprehend," Shaver said. "The offensive linemen who were suspended were protecting their quarterback. You still can't throw punches. You can't throw a player down. Those are against the rules."
"The NFL has tried to do as much as they can to keep the game safe and we see that in every game," Shaver added.
Mason Rudolph was not injured, but Shaver says the last eight seconds of this game may have hurt the sport.
"Football has taken a beating in the public because of the concussion situation," Shaver said. "I love football. It has a lot of redeeming qualities that teach young men, young women, who play, things about life that they might not learn any other place. This kind of incident ruins all of that. It does."
