does their due diligence in checking for a concussion. So that’s pretty much just going through the protocol and the demands of what we’re supposed to do. I didn’t feel I had a concussion or anything, so I mean I was fine.”
Likewise, Ward’s neck feels much better than after the Stanley truck hit him. He’ll return to action for Sunday’s game against the Steelers.
“It’s good. It’s good,” he said. “Feeling a lot better, that’s for sure. But, no, I’m good. I’m ready to go.”
Safety Grant Delpit agreed Thursday that the hit was a cheap shot.
“Oh, man, yeah,” he said. “We can’t have that in this league, man. You’re doing a lot to protect offensive players with everybody, but it’s a lot of, you know what I mean? So you can’t have big 300 pounders come hit our corners like that and they’re not looking so no, it is what it is.”
He was grateful that Ward wasn’t hurt worse and didn’t suffer his fifth concussion, but he was lost for most of the game, and Mike Ford filled the void.
“Yeah, I’m very glad,” Delpit said. “Denzel’s one of our top corners. So like I said, man, we got to do a better job of protecting defensive players in this league.
Browns guard Joel Bitonio hadn’t seen the hit, but agreed that helmet-to-helmet hits must be legislated out of the game.
“You don’t want to hit people in the head and in the neck when you don’t have to,” he said. “But as a lineman you’re taught to go push the pile as well. So it’s one of those plays where you don’t—I hope guys don’t do things maliciously like that. I think they’re trying to play football, play football hard, but it’s one of those things you’d hope not to happen either.”
Browns rookie receiver Cedric Tillman was also fined $5,667 for unnecessary roughness for his blindside block on linebacker Kyle Van Noy, which offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt said was clean. Van Noy headbutted him after the play, for which he was fined $8,889.
“It was what we asked him to do,” Van Pelt said. “It was probably a little more violent than we expected it to be. Just trying to pin the guy down so he can get the edge. And that’s football. It was a physical play.”
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