Larry Ogunjobi had his suspension appeal heard on Monday. Yesterday was Myles Garrett’s turn. In between was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Maurkice Pouncey’s turn, who was appealing a three-game suspension handed down to him for the role that he played in the melee at the end of the Steelers’ game against the Cleveland Browns a week ago today.
While no word on the verdict of the appeal has been made available as of the time of this writing, it is interesting to note that Pouncey, over the phone, had a team representative alongside him during his appeals process.
According to Dan Graziano, the team felt as though Pouncey was given a longer suspension “so as to keep him out of [the] Week 13 rematch” against the Browns, and they were upset about that. Especially in light of Ogunjobi being suspended only one game, meaning that he will be available against the Steelers a week from Sunday.
Source says a Steelers representative joined Maurkice Pouncey’s appeal hearing by phone Tuesday in support of the player. Per source, Steelers are upset because they think Pouncey got more than one game so as to keep him out of Week 13 Browns rematch.
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) November 20, 2019
The Steelers are already preparing for Pouncey to be suspended, of course. While he has not been placed on the Reserve/Suspended List yet, he is not practicing, because the team knows that he will not be playing this week.
Evidently their hope is that they can have it reduced to only one game. That seems like a longshot, but a one-game reduction down to two would not surprise me. While Ogunjobi’s suspension was upheld, they did wipe out an additional fine that was handed to him.
As a reminder, as though anybody has forgotten, Pouncey threw several punches and a kick in retaliation against Browns defensive end Myles Garrett after he used Mason Rudolph’s own helmet to strike him in the head, the final act in an escalating confrontation between the two that began with the defender illegally taking him down after releasing the ball on a passing play.
We should know soon, perhaps even by the time this actually publishes, whether or not the Steelers will have any success in getting Pouncey’s suspension reduced. After they play the Cincinnati Bengals this week, and then the Browns, they travel west to face the Arizona Cardinals.
Does the team really have an argument that the length of Pouncey’s suspension was influenced by the league’s desire to keep him out of the next game against the Browns? The fact that it was three games rather than two wouldn’t really help their case, and even if the suspension is reduced, it would likely be by one game and not two, which would still keep him out of the rematch against Cleveland.
