Dozens of Steelers could face fines for leaving sideline, joining fracas
CLEVELAND — The NFL swiftly administered harsh penalties to the Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett and Larry Ogunjobi and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Maurkice Pouncey for their actions in the final seconds of Thursday night’s game. But the league cautioned that those won’t be the only players disciplined for involvement in the melee.
The news release from the NFL that announced suspensions for Garrett (at least six games), Pouncey (three games) and Ogunjobi (one game) also included the following sentence: “Additional discipline for other players will be forthcoming through the standard accountability process, including those players that left the bench to enter the fight area.”
Video from the Fox broadcast of the Browns’ 21-7 win at FirstEnregy Stadium showed several players who were not part of the play in question who entered the playing field to participate, in some level, in what the league referred to as a “fight” when explaining the suspension of Garrett.
According the NFL’s official fines schedule agreed to with the Players Association, a first offense for “Unnecessarily Entering Fight Area (active involvement)” is $7,017 and “Unnecessarily Entering Fight Area (no active involvement)” is $3,507.
There were at least a handful of Cleveland players who came from their team’s sideline into the melee, but it did not appear it was the almost-fullscale emptying of the sideline area that happened from the Steelers’ bench area.
The following Steelers players left the sidelines to join the fracas, getting involved to varying degrees: defensive lineman Tyson Alualu; safeties Terrell Edmunds, Kameron Kelly and Minkah Fitzpatrick; cornerbacks Cameron Sutton and Mike Hilton; linebackers Bud Dupree, Mark Barron, Robert Spillane and Vince Williams; and running back Tony Brooks-James.
Of that group, Kelly, Williams and Dupree are most clearly seen making some physical contact with Browns players.
Running back Jaylen Samuels, defensive linemen Isaiah Buggs and Cameron Heyward, safety Jordan Dangerfield, kicker Chris Boswell, long snapper Kameron Canaday and punter Jordan Berry were among the latest to run on the field, too, but they were not seen on camera in close proximity to any Browns players.
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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