Tretter: Chiefs coach shoving Harrison unacceptable

Source: No suspensions; fines possible for incident

Browns center JC Tretter, as president of the NFL players’ union, says an incident like the one Sept. 12 in Kansas City in which a Chiefs assistant coach shoved Browns safety Ronnie Harrison cannot be tolerated.

Harrison was ejected for retaliating by shoving back at Chiefs running backs coach Greg Lewis. Neither Harrison nor Lewis will be suspended for what happened, according to a league source, but both are facing possible fines.

“The entire matter will be reviewed for potential discipline as part of the standard process,” The league source said in an email response to The NewsHerald.

Patrick Mahomes threw a short pass to running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire on the Chiefs’ fifth offensive play after Nick Chubb scored on the

Browns’ opening drive.

Harrison and Browns linebacker Mack Wilson rode Edwards-HeLaire to the ground out of bounds in front of the Kansas City bench. As Harrison was standing and stepping away from Edwards-Helaire, Chiefs center Creed Humphrey bumped into Harrison.

The contact between Humphrey and Harsion was incidental, but it caused Harrison to lose his balance. Harrison inadvertently stepped backward onto Edwards-Helaire.

Lewis was looking at Edwards-Helaire on the ground and appeared to not see Humphrey bump Harrison. Lewis shoved Harrison before Harrison could step off the running back. Harrison gave Lewis a more emphatic shove in retaliation.

At first, a game official threw a flag and called a 15-yard penalty on the Kansas City bench. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid complained loudly enough for

the play to be reviewed by NFL headquarters in New York.

The result was Harrison drew a penalty and was kicked out of the game — a devastating blow with Grant Delpit on the inactive list. Lewis was not ejected.

“Obviously, Ronnie can’t retaliate,” Tretter said Sept. 13 on a Zoom call. “He can’t be the second one into those incidents. There’s no call for that.

“But we can’t have opposing coaches putting their hands on opposing players. We can’t have that. A few years ago, we had an incident between the Bengals and Steelers where now coaches aren’t allowed on the field during injuries because something like that happened. It ramped everybody up and we had a few

nasty plays after that.”

Tretter referred to the new, strict taunting rule which forbids a player from showing up a player on another team. He said Lewis shoving Harrison should fall into the same category.

“I would expect the coach gets held to the same standard if not a higher standard than Ronnie, being the first one in there and being a coach and putting his hand on an opposing player,” Tretter said. “I don’t think there’s any room for that in this league.”

Coach Kevin Stefanski is keeping any thoughts about Lewis or how Reid manipulated the officials to himself. He is not happy with Harrison.

“I talked to Ronnie,” Stefanski said. “It’s the oldest thing in football and sports.

The game officials always see the second guy. Ronnie has to show some poise there and not retaliate. Obviously, it’s disappointing when you lose a starter after five plays.”

Stefanski was asked if he believes Lewis should be punished.

“I’m just going to concern myself with our players and our team,” he said.

M.J. Stewart stepped in as strong safety when Harrison was booted. Stewart had three tackles and one assist, but Harrison was named the starting strong safety for a reason.

“We need everybody,” cornerback Denzel Ward said on Zoom on Sept. 13. “This is a team sport. Ronnie’s a great player. We have a lot of great players, but it takes all of us to win.”