Turf Show Times
It’s all too common in professional sports that when a high-profile player leaves a team, eventually there will be negative commentary and reports that follow them. It’s not that the reports are always meritless, but the timing is extremely predictable. No matter how healthy the relationship was before the trade, release, etc., these stories are bound to follow eventually.
It was hardly a secret that Myles Garrett wasn’t thrilled with his situation in Cleveland. When new Browns coach Todd Monken said he never actually met the reigning Defensive Player of the Year after taking the job, that was a telltale sign that the marriage between player and team was likely headed for divorce. Of course, the Los Angeles Rams were more than willing to facilitate that split.
Enter Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The long-time Browns beat writer published a story this week that found a way to needle Garrett and also place former Ram Jared Verse on a pedestal within just a few paragraphs.
The Garrett notes are particularly wild, frankly, with questionable sourcing and a generally bizarre premise.
“While Garrett was respected and revered by his teammates, he wasn’t necessarily universally loved,” Cabot wrote. “And while he evolved as a leader over the years, he wasn’t the great unifier the Browns always hoped he’d be, often keeping to his tight inner circle away from team headquarters. In fact, the team revolved so heavily around Garrett, he often unwittingly dwarfed his teammates.”
Remember, this is the Cleveland Browns we’re talking about. Garrett was certainly not the favorite teammate of every single guy he every played with (no one possibly could be), but that’s a franchise that has heaped problem after problem on itself since reemerging in 1999. Expecting him to be “the great unifier” while doing the other typical Browns things seems like a big ask, even for a player of Garrett’s stature.
He’s not a perfect person or player. He’s had his issues with teammates in the past. But it’s hard to find a lot (or any) substance in the claims here.
The same goes for this thought two paragraphs later:
“But some teammates, including 2025 No. 5 overall pick Mason Graham, failed to reach their pass-rush potential in Garrett’s huge shadow,” Cabot wrote, later adding: “Some teammates may have even been reluctant to meet Garrett at the quarterback and steal half a sack, especially when he was on a mission to set the single-season sack record, which he did last year with 23.”
Again, the framing here is odd. The Browns were bad last year and Garrett was one of the few major bright spots on the team with the sixth-worst record in the NFL. Graham, an interior defensive lineman, wasn’t realistically expected to post huge sack numbers as a rookie. There’s no sourcing at all here, even something flimsy.
The whole shebang is too predictable. The big name left town, the circumstances weren’t perfectly cordial and now it’s time to dish some dirt,...
