Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens said he is embarrassed — and so is Myles Garrett — after the defensive end hit Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph with his helmet.
The Browns beat NFL rivals the Steelers 21-7, but Thursday's win was overshadowed by an ugly incident involving Cleveland's Garrett, who ripped off Rudolph's helmet before swinging it and hitting the Steelers QB in the head late in the game. Pittsburgh's Maurkice Pouncey then aimed kicks and punches at Garrett in shocking scenes in Cleveland.
After Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield hit out at his team-mate, Kitchens also criticized Garrett post-match as a heavy suspension looms.
'THAT'S ASSAULT': NFL players react to Myles Garrett's helmet-swinging attack
"Of course that's not who we want to be at the end of the game," Kitchens told reporters. "That's not who Myles wants to be, that's not who we're going to be.
"You have to be able to maintain your composure in times like that and under no circumstance do we want anything to do with anything like that. I'm embarrassed, Myles is embarrassed, it's not good so he understands what he did, he understands it's totally unacceptable and we've got to get through it.
HC Freddie Kitchens at the podium https://t.co/OcWZkxvc0H
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) November 15, 2019
"We don't react like that no matter what. That's not an excuse for anything Myles did at all. We're not giving him an excuse, he doesn't want an excuse so it doesn't matter what happened," Kitchens added. "I don't even care what happened. We've got five seconds to go in a game, that can't happen.
"We've got five seconds to go in a game, the biggest game this team has won … never beat Baltimore and Pittsburgh in the same year since 1999 and then we've got to talk about this so there's 52 other guys on the team that that hurt and it's going to hurt moving forward so we don't condone that.
"Myles understands what he did wrong, he's got to maintain his composure just like he had to do at the start of the year, he had to maintain his composure, we've got five seconds in the game, I'm sorry but it's kind of like, he understands."
When asked about the possible length of suspension, Kitchens replied: "I've never seen that in my life so we'll wait and see. I can't answer that.
"Myles is very upset about it, he's got to maintain his composure. We'll see. We've got to take it, whatever they give to us, we've got to take it, so we'll see."