Opinion: It’s time for the NFL to lay down the law

Egregious behavior needs to stop

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Erik Daniel Drost [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

Steelers, Browns battle it out in Cleveland in 2014. The Browns won 31-10.

On Thursday night, the Pittsburgh Steelers had an embarrassing 21-7 loss to the lowly Cleveland Browns.

Waking up Friday morning though, no one cared about the outcome of the game. All anyone can talk about is the fight. In light of this embarrassing act of barbarism, it’s time for the NFL to take action.

With the Steelers trailing with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter, quarterback Mason Rudolph dropped back in the pocket and threw a pass as he was hit by Browns’ defensive end Myles Garrett.

Instead of getting up after the hit, Garrett sat on top of Rudolph and started punching him in the helmet. As two Steelers linemen jumped on Garrett to get him off, he ripped Rudolph’s helmet off and hit him over the head with it.

Then chaos ensued.

Both teams went after each other in the end zone while punches were flying all over the place. Multiple players were ejected, including Browns’ defensive player Larry Ogunjobi, who hit Rudolph from behind in the midst of the fight.

Before all this happened though, there were two vicious hits earlier in the game.

In the first half, Steelers star wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster left the game with a concussion after taking a Greedy Williams hit to the head. No penalty was given for the hit.

In the third quarter, Damarious Randall was ejected for crushing Steelers rookie wide receiver Diontae Johnson with an illegal hit.

After all this happened, the NFL has to do something about it.

Illegal hits to the head have to be taken more seriously and Randall should be suspended for one game.

Myles Garrett should be suspended for the rest of the season. Yes, it sounds like a lot, but he was the one who started the whole fight. It would also ensure that nothing like this would ever happen again.