He still helped escalate the fight even after Garret was pulled away. At that point it should've been done if not for Rudolph continuing towards Garrett unabated. Once again I stand by my statement that you can't start/escalate a fight and then play victim when you get hit back
Naw men, these are grown men that need to be able to control their emotions. The NFL has always allowed jawing and pushing and shoving.
Shit, Stewart KILLED a man.
When you're getting held back by someone during a fight and see another person charging after you, then it's not outta the question for someone to react the way Garrett did. And if someone sees another person being restrained during a fight and proceeds to charge towards that person then that in itself means all cards should be off the table for any playing the role of a victim. I'm not excusing Garret clubbing Rudolph upside the head with a helmet but I'm not looking at Rudolph like he did nothing wrong nor am I ignoring the impact of the level of adrenaline occurring at that moment leading up to the helmet swing.
Yes... NO ONE has ever seen something like that happen. Everyone was shocked by it. It's like a baseball player hitting someone in the head with a bat at full force. Mason got lucky he didn't get gashed or knocked out. That was a hard hit.
Can't justify those actions fam. Just can't swing a helmet at someones head. We have all lost our cool and got into fights, shoving matches and yelling.
Did you not see Mason tried to rip off Garrett helmet. Mason reaction caused Garrett reaction. I'm blame Tomlin too, 8 seconds left and no chance to win. Run the ball and get the game over with.
Can’t hit someone in the head with a helmet. Simply can’t do it
Never did I say Garrett was justified. He absolutely deserves to be punished but to ignore Rudolph's actions as being a direct catalyst to everything that transpired afterwards is irresponsible. If you put a firecracker near to a flame, don't start acting all shocked that the firecracker eventually exploded. Fights happen but if you continue to pursue your opponent after he's been restrained then don't act shocked when he gets another hit in on you. The whole thing should've ended the moment the o-linemen pulled Garrett away from Rudolph. Rudolph took it upon himself to continue going after Garrett while Garret was being restrained and Garrett foolishly responded the way he did. It could be seen as him still being in fight or flight mode from all the adrenaline and thought he was defending himself. Either way Garrett is getting punished accordingly but I believe Rudolph should not be getting off without any penalty for being the catalyst for everything.
I'm not justifying it and I apologize if it comes across that way. I'm just saying I can see that reaction being a part of what led to this outcome. Garrett was definitely wrong and should be punished 100%. I'm just not giving a free pass to Rudolph. Rudolph can't play victim when he was part of why everything went the way it did in the first place. That's all
Garrett took all of the impact himself, Rudolph was just pissed off about it and retaliated by grabbing onto his helmet and it escalated from there. A flag wasn't thrown until the skirmish broke out. Garrett should not have swung on him with the helmet but flung it away and this would've been a totally different conversation.
