Browns Steelers fight

[JKelly]

Oh and by the way Garrett would have gotten less of a suspension if he beat a woman. So think about that.

[JuggernautJ]

Quick question doesn't Rudolph have some blame? If he just got up none of this would have happened. Granted Garrett's reaction was way out of line but I find it humorous how Rudolph is coming of as a cherub.

Mason Rudolph will be fined (but not suspended) for his part in the Thursday Night Fight.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000 ... -tnf-brawl

[JeffreyMiller]

When I read the account of it, I was expecting to see blood pouring out of every one of Rudolph's orifices. But when you see it, the helmet bounces off his head and he's up like the Energizer Bunny, immediately yelling for a flag.

Yup, I watched the game so saw it as it happened, my general reaction was a subdued "well, he's going to get suspended for that" and already started to get annoyed in advance of the non-stop coverage of it I knew was coming. Didn't even take a minute after the game ended until I saw media saying "assault", and "he could have killed him" (my note: he's alive, no one died), and a lot of the self-righteous "I shouldn't have to see that" all about themselves nonsense and all the typical modern society reaction you would expect that's completely over-the-top.

"Can't do that, should be [and was] suspended." - A reasonable reaction.

Definitely not that worst "helmet rip off" I've ever seen in the NFL, not the first time I've seen a helmet swung and helmetless player hit with his own helmet in the NFL, not even close to the worst fight(s) I've seen in the NFL, have seen helmets thrown at opponents, and so on. Plus it's arguably more common in practice/training camp to rip off and swing helmets at eachother. Remember reading stories about it a handful of times and I've seen it in-person if you start including all levels of football.

Ripping off helmet and swinging it has happened in college football, too. In games and in practice/camp. And, it's happened in HS football before, too and actually probably the worst 'contact' on a swung helmet to head, or even all of the top-3 worst I've seen all happened in HS. It's not something new or that's never happened before or as media people have said "Nothing like this has ever happened before" (yes it has) or "this is the worst thing that's ever happened on a football field" (people have literally died on football fields) so the coverage/hyperbole that I instantly knew was coming was the reaction, for me.

Seriously? A roundhouse swing of the helmet onto another person's head is not "assault"? It was intent to injure and in no way within the spirit of competition or acceptable violence of a gridiron contest.

[JeffreyMiller]

Quick question doesn't Rudolph have some blame? If he just got up none of this would have happened. Granted Garrett's reaction was way out of line but I find it humorous how Rudolph is coming of as a cherub.

I think that all the suspensions were warranted but again if he doesn't try to play tough guy we are discussing how bad the Steelers offense is (granted because of injuries) not a fight.

He couldn't get up because Garrett was on top of him. If Rudolph pushed back or grabbed Garrett's helmet, it was in self defense.

[Reaser]

Seriously? A roundhouse swing of the helmet onto another person's head is not "assault"? It was intent to injure and in no way within the spirit of competition or acceptable violence of a gridiron contest.

Not sure what you're asking since I am failing to see where I said it was not an "assault"?

I'm only seeing that I said I was dreading the overly dramatic, hyperbolic, and 'use it to prop ones self up as infallible' type responses from the media, which included -in the context of which it was used and the context of our times- a so-called buzz word like, "assault" -- which was only one of multiple examples I gave.

Others are certainly free to view it as they wish and react according to their own sensibilities. As stated, I saw it, thought "you can't do that, he should be suspended." Which seems reasonable, to me.

I did not however fly off the handles, possibly because I've seen worse on a football field and in sports (McSorley was much worse and a non-buzz word assault in it's time) so yes, it gets an eye-roll from me when I turn on sports networks and hear things like "I've never seen anything worse in my x-amount of years covering sports" which overlaps with things like the aforementioned McSorley, things like O.J. Simpson, things like Ray Curruth, things like Michael Vick, things like HS football incidents where they really swing and connect with the helmet to a helmetless player's head repeatedly, things like the Ray Rice video, things like murder, rape, boxers dying (I watched a fight this year where the boxer was stretched out and died in less than 24 hours, that's significantly worse than a helmet bouncing off of Rudoph's head) and roughly hundreds to thousands of more examples in just my lifetime.

Which doesn't even cover before my lifetime when you can go far enough back to when football players literally died on the field with skulls caved in. So again, possibly just me but I'm not going to act personally offended as if this directly affects my day-to-day life or even act like this is "the worst thing that's ever happened on a football field" or even that it has never happened before -- I saw Incognito get his helmet ripped off and swung across his face not even that long ago.

Just shared how I personally reacted to it and that I immediately was dreading how it was going to be covered -- particularly hilarious on NFL Network where Steve Smith Sr. -am a fan of his for what it's worth- was giving his thoughts and I kept thinking "didn't you try to rip off multiple players helmets during games? And didn't you not once, but have multiple occasions of being up teammates in practice to where they had broken body parts and had to be stretched off the practice field and beat them up so badly that you had to turn yourself in?" ... and he was the voice of what you can and can't do in football, ha! Also funny when hosts asked a handful of football players if they've ever seen anything like that and they all just calmly nodded like 'yup, it's happened before' and they explained that it was something they saw in training camp and practice and not necessarily something you'd think you'd see in a game but still has happened "in football" before.

[JeffreyMiller]

Sorry if I inferred wrongly when you put the word assault in quote marks .... seemed like you were questioning the use of that word. No?

[Reaser]

Sorry if I inferred wrongly when you put the word assault in quote marks .... seemed like you were questioning the use of that word. No?

No worries, was in quotes because it was said by someone in the media so I was quoting them. And the context it was said in was part of the larger overall picture of the predictable and in my opinion, overly dramatic and hyperbolic response that I felt was coming and did in fact happen as I imagined.

There's saying "he should be suspended" and then there's acting like he's guilty of murder one. The former seems normal, to me. The latter, I'd say those people need to get a grip.

[JKelly]

Quick question doesn't Rudolph have some blame? If he just got up none of this would have happened. Granted Garrett's reaction was way out of line but I find it humorous how Rudolph is coming of as a cherub.

I think that all the suspensions were warranted but again if he doesn't try to play tough guy we are discussing how bad the Steelers offense is (granted because of injuries) not a fight.

He couldn't get up because Garrett was on top of him. If Rudolph pushed back or grabbed Garrett's helmet, it was in self defense.

I agree pushing a guy off could be considered self defense but not trying to rip off Garrett’s helmet. That was the spark.

[bachslunch]

I have no problem with the punishment doled out. If anything, I’d additionally suspend Rudolph a game for starting the whole thing by grabbing Garret’s face mask. But the rest seem very reasonable. Garrett should be suspended the remainder of the season. Pouncey should be suspended three games and maybe more — pulling the guy off is one thing, punching and kicking the guy something else. Ogunjobi being suspended one game for hitting Rudolph from behind long after the play was over seems okay.

Do not at all agree that Pouncey is justified in his actions as “protecting his QB.” There are plenty of other ways to accomplish this besides jumping in slugging and kicking.

[Terry Baldshaw]

There is no reason to suspend Rudolph. How many players get into a scuffle and grab another player's facemask? How many are suspended for doing so?

I could say that the Steelers contributed to the mess by passing with 15 seconds left. The game was OVER. Run the ball and end it. Garrett grabbed Rudolph and refused to let go, finally taking the QB to the ground. Many QBs get upset over such an action. The problem started when Garrett lost his cool. The fast that no damage occurred to Rudolph is irrelevant. Garrett used the helmet as a weapon with the intent to do harm.

I don't blame Pouncey for defending his QB. He kicked a another man, however, and that is a cowardly act.

It was a violent end to a depressingly dull game between two mediocre teams.