Myles Garrett broke the all-time single-season sack record this year. With 23 registered sacks, he passed Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt’s 22.5 mark to take the all-time lead. It was a glorious moment for a player who deserves every personal accomplishment that comes his way.
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Many fans may remember that Garrett’s father, Lawrence, brought a camera to the Cleveland Browns‘ last game against the Cincinnati Bengals, hoping to capture the historic moment. Photos of Lawrence holding a massive camera on the sidelines went viral online as well. He looked like a professional photographer.
But in case you’re wondering why Lawrence’s photos haven’t been published, it’s because he never actually captured the moment. According to Garrett, his father was unready for the shot at the exact moment the historic play occurred.
“There’s no way he brought that big, old 600-millimeter lens and didn’t get the shot,” Garrett remembered telling himself after the game (via The Tonight Show). “He didn’t get the shot… I had one of those good get-offs, met with Joe [Burrow], we talked, and he didn’t have the camera up.”
All of that work by Lawrence to bring the camera ended up being for nothing. But he had a good excuse.
Garrett went on to share that after he went the first three quarters without a sack, his family took matters into their own hands. Being superstitious, they decided to huddle up, spread out into different seats around the stadium, and even swap them. And while Lawrence was in the middle of finding his new seat, his son broke the record.
It sounds like it was simply bad timing. Lawrence and the rest of the family were genuinely concerned that Garrett was not going to break the record that day. Luckily for them, the future Hall of Famer achieved the feat in the last moment. Garrett, however, says he never doubted he would break it at some point, if not this year, then next year.
“We were going to break it regardless,” Garrett said sheepishly. “There was never a thought that I wasn’t going to get it. There was never a ‘couldn’t.’ Come on… They haven’t been letting me get any all year, so I had to go and take it.”
It’s the perfect mindset to have when pursuing a record like this. After all, Garrett had 18 sacks through 11 games. He started slowing down severely once teams knew that he was pursuing the record. He registered just five in the final six games after that.
But now, Garrett is the NFL’s single-season sack king. It’s a well-deserved record for a player who has been a relentless pass-rusher throughout his career. He’s now made the All-Pro first team in five of the past six seasons and will go down as one of the greatest to ever play the position.
What’s even better is that Garrett has never experienced much team success in Cleveland. To see him go after a record like it was his Super Bowl was fun to watch. It would be great if the Browns could ever supply him with a good enough roster to compete for a Lombardi Trophy. But that feels far-fetched with the way that they operate.
