CLEVELAND — Myles Garrett stood at his locker inside the bowels of FirstEnergy Stadium wearing a white dress shirt and tailored navy suit with toy dinosaurs sitting on the shelves behind him.
Moments earlier, the Cleveland Browns Pro Bowl defensive end was at the center of a scene that Fox play-by-play announcer Joe Buck described as "one of the worst things I've ever seen on a professional sports field."
With the clock ticking down on the Browns' 21-7 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, Garrett became entangled on the ground with Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph. Upon standing up, the jostling between the two spilled into the end zone, with Garrett ripping off Rudolph's helmet before swinging it at him and connecting with him in the head.
That led to a bigger fight and ultimately Garrett, Browns defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi and Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey being ejected from the game.
Standing at his locker after the game, Garrett did his best to explain what had just occurred.
"I made a mistake and I lost my cool and I regret it," Garrett said. "It's going to come back to hurt our team, the guys who jumped in the scrum. I appreciate my team having my back, but it shouldn't have ever gotten to that point. That's on me."
Asked what led to such a violent outburst, the No. 1 pick of the 2017 NFL Draft declined to get into specifics.
"You just gotta go look at it," Garrett answered when asked if Rudolph said something to him to set him off. "I'm not going to comment on it."
As for his statement that the fight would come back to hurt the Browns, who improved to 4-6 with their win over Pittsburgh, Garrett was likely referring to the inevitable suspension that's coming his way. As for how long that suspension will last, that remains unclear. But there's enough evidence to believe there's a strong possibility Cleveland will be without the cornerstone of its defense for the foreseeable future.
"I don't know. I've never been in this situation," Garrett said. "I've never really seen any suspension. I've never really looked into it. I don't know what they're going to do."
BUD SHAW'S SPORTS SPIN: The Browns won a game & lost their heads in the process—Bud Shaw’s Sports Spin