Cleveland Browns Head Coach Freddie Kitchens was seen wearing a “Pittsburgh Started It” t-shirt at a movie on Friday just two weeks removed from the awful incident between Browns defensive tackle Myles Garrett and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph.
In a game between the Browns and Steelers on November 14, Garrett sacked Rudolph in the fourth quarter of the game. Rudolph was then seen trying to grab Garrett’s face-mask, which lead to Garrett ripping off Rudolph’s helmet and hitting him with it. Garrett has since been suspended for the rest of the season, although he claims Rudolph directed a racial slur toward him. The league is still investigating the matter and discussing whether or not Garrett will face discipline next season.
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Following the game two weeks ago Kitchens told reporters, “I’ve never seen that in my life. It’s not good.” Then he decides to pull this.
Referencing the incident with a t-shirt is something a crazed fan might do, but a head coach should not. Especially when you’re leading an organization that has had 11 different coaches in the last 20 years. He didn’t have to wear the shirt and now his team has yet another distraction to deal with. In the press conference following the Brown’s 20-13 loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday, Kitchens told reporters, “The t-shirt didn’t have anything to do with this. I wore a t-shirt, I wore a jacket with it. My daughter told me to wear the shirt and I’d wear it again. I put a jacket on, I covered it up. I took a picture with a fan. It was as simple as that. The t-shirt didn’t cause us to give up 40-yard passes. We we’re ready to play.”
Steelers guard Ramon Foster said, “You just don’t see that from upper management. We’ve all got to grow as professionals in some sense. I’m glad Coach [Tomlin] doesn’t do anything like that. I know our coach would have never done anything like that.”
After acquiring star receivers Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry then drafting Baker Mayfield number one overall in the 2018 NFL draft, the Browns appeared to be turning things around. But that was just on the surface. Underneath it all there was ego, inexperienced coaching and over hyped expectations. It’s not a surprise that one of the league’s worst organizations has screwed up yet again. It doesn’t look good for Kitchens who was one of the biggest question marks for football experts this season. He took over head coaching duties last year after Hugh Jackson was fired. He finished the year with a 5-3 record, but he may be out of a job after this dumpster fire of a season. These are the same old Browns just creating new problems.
