John Steigerwald: Myles Garrett's verbal attack on Steelers' Mason Rudolph worse than helmet hit

Jussie Smollett called. He said he believes Myles Garrett.

You remember Smollett, he’s the gay black actor who claimed he was attacked in the middle of the night on a Chicago street by two white guys wearing MAGA hats, who used racial and homophobic slurs while putting a noose around his neck and dousing him with bleach.

Most of the media came to his defense, and Smollett even managed to cry during an interview with Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America.” Roberts came close to crying, too.

Of course, it was a hate-crime hoax and just last week Smollett was indicted on six felony counts of disorderly conduct. The city of Chicago also would like Smollett to pay $130,000 to cover the cost of the investigation.

Garrett isn’t claiming to be the victim of a hate crime, but he sure does appear to be trying to perpetrate a hoax.

After his indefinite suspension for hitting Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph in the head with Rudolph’s helmet was lifted, allowing him to play in the Browns first game next season, Garrett doubled down on his claim it all started with Rudolph calling him the N-word.

Nobody at the NFL office believed Garrett last November when he pulled out the race card during his hearing in an attempt to get a lighter sentence, but how can he change his story now?

Last week he told ESPN that Rudolph “used the N-word. He called me a stupid N-word … regardless of whether the NFL wants to acknowledge it.”

As of this writing, no one on this planet wants to acknowledge it. Rudolph said it’s “1000 percent false,” and his attorney went public with a statement that included the word “defamation.”

The NFL said, despite multiple microphones and human ears within hearing distance of the incident at the end of the game, there is no evidence of the word being used.

Garrett, unlike Smollett, isn’t claiming to be the victim of a hate crime, but, in some ways, what he’s doing is worse.

Smollett was hoping to gain publicity and pity for himself by taking advantage of the racial tension that exists in the country and the knowledge that the media, too many of whom have been practicing wishful-thinking journalism, would be quick to believe him.

But Smollett’s plan didn’t include the perp being identified.

Garrett has labeled Rudolph, who makes his living in a workplace made up of 70% black employees and works for a black boss, a racist.

His boss, coach Mike Tomlin, released a statement last week in which he said he believes Rudolph because he knows him and because, during his interaction with players and coaches from both teams after the game, nobody mentioned the word being said.

What Garrett is saying now is worse that what he did on that Thursday night in November. That was in the heat of the moment and, as written here at the time, Rudolph got off too easy when he wasn’t suspended.

There are plenty of people in the media who are, at the very least, giving Garrett the benefit of the doubt and are allowing for the possibility Rudolph dropped the N-word. Rudolph has no way of proving he didn’t.

He’s also being accused of being unbelievably stupid. Would the worst racist be stupid enough to use that word in front of his black coach and mostly black teammates?

If evidence existed of Rudolph using that word, what would it do to his chances of a career in football?

I took some heat in November for saying I thought a season-ending six-game suspension was too much for Garrett and Rudolph got off easy, but if it can be proven Garrett tried to reduce his sentence by gutlessly lying about Rudolph, he should be suspended again.

Six years wouldn’t be enough.