Browns' Damarious Randall Says He's Received Death Threats After Dirty Hit on Diontae Johnson

Pittsburgh Steelers v Cleveland Browns
Pittsburgh Steelers v Cleveland Browns / Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

The Week 11 edition of 'Thursday Night Football' will forever be remembered for the inexcusable actions of Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, who struck Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph with his helmet.

Yet, this was the domino effect of an all-around dirty game by the Browns. Prior to that, Browns safety Damarious Randall was ejected for a nasty helmet-to-helmet hit on Steelers receiver Diontae Johnson.

During an interview with Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com on Wednesday, Randall revealed he received death threats following his ejection.

“How is it, from the standpoint, after the hit . . . I get so many death threats, so many people calling me names, people saying, ‘Oh, I hope you get hurt; I’m going to kill you, this and that,'” Randall said, via Cleveland.com, “and it’s OK for fans to do it to us, but then when we say something back, it’s a problem, [and] we get in trouble? I just never understood that.”

Randall's hit resulted in Johnson suffering a concussion, while also causing bleeding from the rookie's right ear. The safety stressed that he wasn't trying to intentionally hurt Johnson on the play, and apologized to him on social media following the game.

This is the only time that Randall's been disqualified from a game in his career.

In his interview, Randall brought up former teammate Jamir Whitehead, who was released by the Browns after sending death threats to fans following their Week 9 loss to the Denver Broncos. Randall didn't defend Whitehead's comments, but said that there should be repercussions for social media users who post threatening messages to athletes.