NFL Ignores Intent in Punishment for Mason Rudolph

In an interview with Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, the NFL's Head of Football Operations Troy Vincent said another wave of fines would be coming in the continuing fallout from the events of Thursday night involving Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph. Vincent laid out how the league decided the punishments for each of the players, judging each action individually, never considering intent.

Rudolph was judged for grabbing Garrett's facemask and kicking Garrett, which both constitute fines according to Vincent. They treated those actions as if they occurred in a vacuum, at no point considering the fact that Rudolph's actions started everything and then further escalated the situation.

Garrett is responsible for his own actions, but it's impossible to ignore that had Rudolph not grabbed Garrett's facemask, none of this happens. If he doesn't kick Garrett in the groin, it doesn't escalate it. And if he doesn't charge Garrett who is being restrained by David DeCastro, Garrett can't hit him with his helmet.

That unwillingness to consider intent allows Rudolph to avoid suspension, but in failing to consider the proximate cause of the brawl, it doesn't discourage instigating. It also allows Rudolph to get away with the bald face lying he did in his press conference after the game. Playing the role of a victim, Rudolph put all of the blame on Garrett and Larry Ogunjobi, acting as if he was completely innocent, despite the video which refutes him entirely.

There's this Eddie Haskel dynamic here and the NFL has chosen to be willfully naive. The NFL's attitude in this type of situation should be to get to the root of the problem so this type of embarrassment doesn't occur again. Their punishments for Rudolph are extremely safe, going entirely by the letter of the law, trying to avoid reprisal from the NFL Players Association.

The problem with that is they didn't do that with Garrett. Garrett is going to appeal on the basis that the NFL can't suspend a player for an indefinite amount of time for an on-field action, hoping to get the suspension reduced as well as a definitive amount of time.

There's no denying the fact that the ruling when it came to Garrett was arbitrary. That doesn't make it necessarily wrong as most people seem to be fine with the notion that Garrett will miss the remaining six games of the season for the action. But when considering history, Antonio Smith ripped the helmet off of an opponent in a game, hit him with it and was suspended one game.

Being on national television and the only game available absolutely played a role. PR and how this was viewed were huge factors in doling out this punishment. The NFL did not play it safe or by the book with Garrett, so hiding behind it for Rudolph, ignoring everything else that happened, is hypocritical.

The transparency being offered by the NFL is valuable and important, giving insight into the process. However, it only serves to show how the NFL missed the mark on this situation when it comes to Mason Rudolph, raising further questions as opposed to answering them, taking an ugly situation and only making it worse.