Myles Garrett was officially reinstated by the NFL on Wednesday morning, according to Cleveland.com reporter Mary Kay Cabot, who tweeted the news. The Cleveland Browns star got word from the league that he could return to team activities, effective immediately. This decision comes just a few days after Garrett met with league commissioner Roger Goodell.
The Cleveland Browns confirmed the news with a quick statement on Twitter from the team’s new general manager, Andrew Berry.
“We welcome Myles back to our organization with open arms. We know he is grateful to be reinstated, eager to put the past behind him and continue to evolve and grow as a leader. We look forward to having his strong positive presence back as a teammate, player, and person in our community.”
Garrett will now be able to start taking part in the Browns’ official offseason activities as they gear up for the 2020 season under new head coach Kevin Stefansky. While Stefansky has been busy hiring coaches and reshaping the roster to his liking, this particular announcement allows him to know he won’t be missing the team’s best defensive player for any part of the upcoming season.
After Garrett met with Goodell on Monday, there were reports he was expected to be reinstated shortly, though it seems most analysts didn’t believe the league would move quite this quickly.
The Washington Post reported the NFL still wanted to review whether or not Garrett had complied with everything he was ordered to do when he was first suspended indefinitely last year. That included looking into whether or not the Browns player had attended the counseling and anger management classes that were mandated.
Garrett missed the final six games of the regular season last year during his suspension. The punishment stemmed from him pulling the helmet off of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph and hitting him on the head with it.
Not long after the initial punishment was handed down, Garrett claimed in an appeal that Rudolph had used a racial epithet, which caused the Browns star to lose his cool on a level not often seen in the NFL. The league decided that was not an adequate defense of his actions and upheld the suspension and fine first levied against him. Goodell also said at the time they could find no evidence Rudolph had done what he was accused of in the game against Cleveland. For his part, Rudolph denied calling Garrett any kind of slur.