CLEVELAND — The NFL has denied the appeal of Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett for that ugly brawl last Thursday against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Garrett was looking to either get some clarity in his indefinite suspension, or to have it reduced in some way.
But the NFL said no.
It's an indefinite suspension and the only person who can reinstate Garrett is NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
This is no surprise that Garrett has lost the appeal. This is such a big incident. Such a bad incident. Such an ugly incident.
It's such a black eye on the league that it's way above the pay grade of a hearing officer like former NFL receiver James Thrash, who heard Garrett's two-hour appeal on Wednesday.
But there's more news to this situation that has emerged.
There's reporting that part of Garrett's whole defense system was that the brawl was touched off by a racial slur directed towards him by Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Rudolph.
The NFL has quickly come out and said that there is no evidence whatsoever that Rudolph directed a racial slur towards Garrett.
Inside the Browns' locker room, Myles Garrett's teammates are saying if Garrett said it, then it happened.
In the Steelers' locker room, Rudolph was set to meet with Pittsburgh reporters, but when this story broke, the media session was cancelled.
The bottom line is this: Myles Garrett plays no more games this year. We hope he plays at the beginning of next season, but that's up in the air.
The biggest game, the most important game of Garrett's career will come when he sits across the room from Goodell to explain what happened and promise that there will never be another such occurrence.
You can watch Jimmy's Take in the player above.
ALSO: Get more on this story from Jimmy and Dave "Dino" DeNatale during Thursday's edition of Donovan & Dino: