CLEVELAND, Ohio — Browns cornerback Greg Newsome II went all around the Cleveland locker room reenacting wrestling moves after his team’s 24-19 win over the Steelers on Thursday night.
To him, it was the best analogy to describe the final play of the game, when he was matched up with Steelers receiver George Pickens.
“He was just trying to do WrestleMania with me the whole time,” Newsome said. “So that’s what happened at the end.”
The two were matched up from the jump, as the Steelers faced third-and-1 from the Cleveland 35 with six seconds left.
They fought all the way down the field, before going out of the back of the end zone, as Steelers QB Russell Wilson heaved a Hail Mary.
While the ball was batted down by Browns safety Grant Delpit and cornerback Denzel Ward to seal the game for Cleveland, Pickens wasn’t even near it as he and Newsome continued to battle.
It appeared Newsome had the edge on the play, boxing him out of the action. Pickens responded by grabbing Newsome by the helmet and dragging him out of the end zone.
“Yeah, he’s a fake tough guy,” Newsome said. “He does a lot of that. The antics and stuff. Yeah, he didn’t even go up for the ball.”
While Newsome may think it’s a tough guy act, this certainly wasn’t a fake fight.
The two wound up on the ground in front of the Huntington Bank Field stands, next to the restraining wall, and had to be separated by officials and security personnel as Cleveland started to celebrate on the field.
As snow pummeled the Cleveland lakefront, the weather and Browns defense held Pickens to 48 yards as he caught four of seven targets.
“I think we did a really good job trying to stop some of those, what they say, 50-50 balls,” Newsome said. “We call ‘em 80-20 balls. So I think we did a good job eliminating those.”
And after the game, it was clear as ever that there was no love lost between the two sides.
“Conditions played a huge, huge part in today’s game,” Pickens told Steelers reporters. “I don’t think the Cleveland Browns are a good team at all. I think the conditions kind of saved them today.”
That quote quickly began to circulate on social media, especially considering the Browns are only 3-8 after entering the season with sky-high Super Bowl aspirations.
Newsome seemingly doubled down his postgame interview in response to that quote, posting on X “Fake tough guy” with three crying laughing emojis.
Pickens has certainly got a reputation for being a feisty receiver during his first three seasons in the NFL. Earlier this year, he was fined $10,230 for unnecessary roughness for grabbing the face mask of Dallas Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis in the final seconds of Dallas’ Week 5 win.
And on Thursday, Newsome wasn’t the only Browns player to get into it with him.
With 8:28 remaining in the game, Delpit was whistled for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after pulling Pickens’ mouth guard out of his mouth and throwing it to the ground as the two talked near the goal line.
“I let my intrusive thoughts win, but it looked like we won the battle,” Delpit said. “We won the battle. So eff it, we ball.”
Maybe the most interesting part of this drama is the fact that it has a chance to be reignited very quickly.
The Browns will have to travel to Pittsburgh to play the Steelers again in Week 14 on Dec. 8.
The comments and scuffle from this one will hardly be a distant memory.
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