High school football fans spent the weekend taking in playoff games in Ohio. At Nordonia’s Boliantz Stadium, people were also talking about the violent end of Thursday’s Browns-Steelers game, and its possible impact on the game and student athletes.
Archbishop Hoban beat Mayfield in the Division II regional semifinal on Friday, just hours after the NFL indefinitely suspended Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett for an altercation with Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph.
Mark Grams from Northfield says the suspension is appropriate for an NFL player, but he’s still not sure of the message it sends to student athletes.
“I’m still trying to put my arms around it,” Grams says. “[It’s] crazy. Never seen anything like that before. Kids are watching that stuff: apology’s fine, but it’s like – this can’t happen again. What do you? I don’t really know what to do.”
The influence on kids is what concerns parents like Rich Parisi from Macedonia, who says if anything like it happened at the high school level, “Well, they’re kids – they’re not adults – but something needs to happen even to them. You can’t let violence rule the day.”
Doug Woods was cheering on his son, starting safety for the Wildcats. He says they had watched the Browns game with several other Mayfield players, who were perplexed by what they saw.
“They go, ‘Wow, something went wrong. Myles lost his mind.’ I told them, ‘Play good – don’t play like that – play solid football between the whistle.’ And that’s what they have to do,” Woods says.
Woods believes the incident has reignited the Browns-Steelers rivalry to the level it was when he grew up in the 1980s.
The two teams play again – in Pittsburgh – on December 1.
Hoban – looking for a fifth state title -- takes on undefeated Massillon in the Division II regional final on Friday.
