CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns’ four-legged family grew by one on Tuesday night.
Third-year defensive end Myles Garrett adopted a dog and announced his decision on Instagram with a picture of the pup in an orange Browns jersey and the caption: “Newest member of the #dawgpound! Meet my son, Gohan,” followed by a dog emoji.
In less than 18 hours, Garrett’s post was liked by more than 34,000 Instagram users.
Fully healthy coming into the 2018 season, Garrett emerged as a leader for the Browns’ defense and registered 44 total tackles, including 35 solo stops, while playing in all 16 games for the team who selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.
Of those 44 tackles, 13.5 were sacks on opposing quarterbacks for 75.5 lost yards and finished the year with the fourth-most sacks in a single season in franchise history.
With 20.5 career sacks, Garrett registered the most by a Brown in his first 27 games, as well as the most by a defender in his first two professional seasons. This past year, Garrett ranked sixth in the NFL with the 13.5 sacks and fourth in the AFC with four forced fumbles.
Garrett earned his first trip to the Pro Bowl and was a second-team All-Pro selection following the 2018 season.
But Garrett is about far more than football, as he showed in “Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Cleveland Browns” this past August.
While others enjoy video games, movies and other forms of entertainment during their time away from the game, Garrett likes paleontology (the study of dinosaurs), as well as writing poetry, and credits both his grandmother and the man simply known as “The Greatest,” Muhammad Ali, for him being able to express himself in words.
“I try to get some writing in at night if I can, or a little bit at lunchtime,” Garrett said during the second episode of the five-part mini-series.
“Most people want me to write something about me sacking a quarterback, but that’s not what goes through my mind when I’m trying to get away from football. I was a boy who liked to write long before I was a man who liked to hit people, so I’m not going to change for anybody else. I’m not going to hide who I am. I’m just going to stay true to myself.”
Garrett even showed off his writing chops by reading a verse he composed recently.
“If I should die tonight, then I let your tears stream.
Just knowing you for some time has been better than any dream.
If I were to walk into the light, it would be with grace and a smile,
For it has been an honor and a privilege just to be yours for a while.”