Myles Garrett Wasn’t Happy With Ja’Marr Chase’s ‘Disrespectful’ Slight of Browns Mascot

In the AFC North, the 2020s have belonged so far to the Bengals. Cincinnati has won two of the three division titles awarded this decade and the 2021 AFC title, and nearly repeated as AFC champions in ’22.

However, the Bengals have frequently been vanquished in the last three years by an unlikely rival: the Browns.

Cleveland, despite a mostly mediocre decade since its 2020 playoff appearance, is 5–1 against Cincinnati since ’20. Despite the Bengals’ struggles in the Battle of Ohio, wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase brushed off suggestions that his team has a Browns problem.

“It’s a regular game to me,” Chase said. “It’s just the hooping [sic] and hollering about the Cleveland... Browns. I was about to call them the (elves).”

Cleveland defensive end Myles Garrett took humorous exception to Chase’s apparent denigration of Brownie the Elf, a symbol of the team dating back to its early days in the All-America Football Conference.

“He didn’t have to go there. He knew better,” Garrett said, smiling. “I’ll have to discuss it with him before or after the game. Maybe during if I see him during it. But the elf’s a little bit too far.”

Garrett and Chase will get the chance to settle any spat on the field Sunday when the Bengals travel to Cleveland to take on the Browns at 1 p.m. ET.