CLEVELAND, Ohio — Steelers coach Mike Tomlin admitted Tuesday that he hadn’t seen the video of receiver George Pickens’ scuffle with Browns cornerback Greg Newsome II, but indicated that the Browns interfered with Pickens and prevented him from going up for the ball on the Hail Mary at the end of the game in whiteout conditions.
Had Pickens caught the ball, the Steelers would’ve won 25-24 to improve to 9-2, and the Browns would’ve dropped to 2-9.
But Newsome’s version of events is drastically different than that of Tomlin, who didn’t see the video of Pickens grabbing Newsome by the facemask, removing his helmet, and flinging him into the wall in front of the closed end of the stadium after Russell Wilson’s Hail Mary was knocked down by Grant Delpit and Denzel Ward. Newsome fought back, taking a few swings at Pickens to defend himself.
The two were engaged from the start of the play when Pickens began grabbing Newsome’s facemask, until the fight in the end zone.
“I heard about it,” Tomlin said during his press conference on Tuesday. “Certainly he was involved in the Hail Mary as a point man.”
He was asked what the point man is.
“The guy that highpoints the football,” Tomlin said.
Was he in position to do so?
“I think their actions had something to do with him not being in position to do that,” Tomlin said.
Cleveland.com reported Saturday that the NFL is reviewing the incident, but Tomlin said he hasn’t heard from the league. Kevin Stefanski declined to comment on the incident.
After the game, Newsome described Pickens as “a fake tough guy. He does a lot of that. The antics and stuff. Yeah, he didn’t even go up for the ball.”
Pickens, held to four catches on seven targets for 48 yards, provided the Browns with some bulletin board material for the rematch in Pittsburgh on Dec. 8.
“I don’t think the Cleveland Browns are a good team at all,” he said after the game. “I think the conditions kind of saved them today.”
Newsome said he expected the NFL to look into it, even though he wouldn’t wish a fine upon a player.
“I knew something like that should happen, especially with the guy not making any type of football effort,” Newsome told cleveland.com on Monday. “I assumed the league would look into it.
Newsome said he himself shouldn’t be fined for the incident.
“I was running and he had my facemask the whole time,” he said. “It’s one off those things where you obviously just can’t a let a guy just slam you, so you’ve got to fight back, but there’s definitely nothing. If I were to get fined over something like that, (I would appeal).”
A first offense for fighting, if the NFL deems it that, is $39,501. Pickens has already been fined twice this season for facemask penalties, once for $10,230 against the Cowboys in Week 5, and once for $16,883 in Week 10 against the Commanders.
Newsome said he was worried Pickens was going to take a swing at him with his helmet off.
“That’s the real reason I stayed on so long, because he took my helmet off during the middle of the play,” Newsome said. “I didn’t have a helmet on, so I was like, ‘I’m not letting go until people grab him because I wasn’t about to let him hit me without a helmet on.”
In addition to Pickens’ fight with Newsome, the two knocked over cleveland.com photographer Joshua Gunter, who was on his knees in front of the wall shooting the game. Pickens also engaged in some handsy with a fan in the stands before two security guards restrained him and separated him from the scrum.
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