BEREA, Ohio (AP) — Myles Garrett didn't know he had joined a prestigious list of defensive stars last week until one of his biggest fans pointed it out to him.
“My dad was hyped about it,” he said.
For good reason.
With three sacks last week in Cleveland's 24-19 win in prime time over the Pittsburgh Steelers, Garrett became the seventh player to reach double-digit sacks in seven straight seasons since the stat became official in 1982.
The others: Lawrence Taylor (1984-90), Reggie White (1985-93), Bruce Smith (1992-98), John Randle (1992-99), DeMarcus Ware (2006-12) and Jared Allen (2007-13).
All of them is in the Hall of Fame except for Allen.
“Hall of Famer,” Garrett said in praising the retired Minnesota Vikings edge rusher, who is again on the doorstep of induction as a semifinalist for the fifth straight year.
Garrett is on track to get his own bronze bust one day in Canton, but until then, he's humbled to be in such elite company.
“Guys I looked up to when I started my journey into this game,” said Garrett, who tries to bolster his resume on Monday night when the Browns (3-8) visit the Denver Broncos (7-5). “It’s absolutely amazing to be amongst those guys, not just looking up at them but looking side to side and standing amongst them.
"So I want to continue to find myself on those lists and hopefully stand alone at the end of the day.”
He's on his way.
The NFL's reigning Defensive Player of the Year is having another monster season but probably not getting the recognition he deserves as the Browns, upended by continuous quarterback issues, have fallen way short of expectations.
Garrett used the national TV platform against the Steelers to remind any detractors of his greatness. He sacked Russell Wilson three times, forced a fumble and outplayed Pittsburgh's T.J. Watt, the player to whom he is most often compared.
The Garrett vs. Watt debate went to another level in February. On the day Garrett received his DPOY award, second-place finisher Watt seemed to take a shot at the Browns star by posting “Nothing I'm not used to” on social media.
Those comments stuck with Garrett, who following the win over Pittsburgh — and Watt being held without a sack — didn't hold back in declaring himself the league's best pass rusher.
“I wanted to make it known that I’m the guy, I’m the No. 1 edge defender,” Garrett said.
It was an unusual boast from Garrett, who was asked why he felt he needed to express himself.
“Because part of my journey of being the best player that I can be is I think I can be the best player that there is currently,” he said. ”So I have to live up to those expectations I have for myself. That’s just on the road to be the player that I want to be.”
Garrett's unrelenting drive is what sets him apart. Although he'll enter Monday's game with 98 1/2 sacks and can become just the fifth player to reach 100 in his first eight seasons, joining White, Ware, Allen and Watt, it's not enough.
“I still took too long,” said Garrett, who can become the first to do it before turning 29. “It’d have been tough to catch Mr. White, but hopefully this next however many number will come quicker than the first 100. So we’ll go out there and we’ll do what I do and try to take it up a notch.”
Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz marvels at Garrett's output despite double- and triple-team blocking.
“He just continues to do stuff,” Schwartz said. “His production is so high, even though he’s a marked man, even though every game plan starts with, ‘Don’t let 95 wreck the game,’ and he still finds a way to wreck games.”
Schwartz doesn't need to see any lists to know Garrett belongs among the best to ever rush a quarterback.
“Yes, he does,” Schwartz said. "I think he’s just starting to hit his prime. I think he still has a lot left in front of him. The sky is the limit as far as he goes. And when it’s all said and done, maybe you’re comparing other people to him. That should probably be a goal for him.”
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Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (95) reacts after a defensive stop in the first half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson (3) and Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (95) dive for a fumble in the first half of an NFL football game, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson, left, greets Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (95) after an NFL football game, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Cleveland. The Browns won 24-19. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett talks to reporters after an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Cleveland. The Browns won 24-19. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
TORONTO (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump was joking when he suggested Canada become the 51st U.S. state during a dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Tuesday.
Fox News reported that Trump made the comment in response to Trudeau raising concerns that Trump's threatened tariffs on Canada would damage Canada's economy.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who attended the Friday dinner at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, said Trump's comments were in jest.
“The president was telling jokes. The president was teasing us. It was, of course, on that issue, in no way a serious comment,” LeBlanc told reporters in Ottawa.
LeBlanc described it as a three-hour social evening at the president’s residence in Florida on a long weekend of American Thanksgiving. “The conversation was going to be light-hearted,” he said.
He called the relations warm and cordial and said the fact that “the president is able to joke like that for us” indicates good relations.
The minister said there is no transcript.
“It wasn’t a meeting in a boardroom with 10 bureaucrats keeping notes,” he said. "It was a social evening and there were moments where it was entertaining and funny, and there were moments where we were able to do good work for Canada.”
Earlier last week, the Republican president-elect threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico unless they stem the flow of migrants and drugs.
Trudeau requested the meeting in a bid to avoid the tariffs by convincing Trump that the northern border is nothing like the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to Washington, told The Associated Press that Trudeau was successful in getting Trump and key Cabinet nominees to understand that there is no comparison between the Canada-U.S. border and Mexico-U.S. border when it comes to drugs and migrants.
Hillman, who sat at an adjacent table to Trudeau and Trump, said Canada is ready to make new investments in border security and there are plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers.
At the dinner, Hillman said America’s trade deficit with Canada was also raised. Hillman said the U.S. had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year but noted a third of what Canada sells into the U.S. is energy exports and prices have been high.
“Trade balances are something that he focuses on so it’s important to engage in that conversation but to put it into context,” Hillman told the AP. “We are one-tenth the size of the United States so a balanced trade deal would mean per capita we are buying 10 times more from the U.S. than they are buying from us. If that’s his metric we will certainly engage on that.”
Hillman said Canada sold $170 billion worth of energy products last year to the U.S.
About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports as well
Trudeau held a rare meeting with opposition leaders on Tuesday to discuss the tariff threat.
"The president-elect was elected on a promise to make America richer. These tariffs would make America poorer,” opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said after the meeting.
“They would raise energy prices when he promised that he would cut them in half. They would kill American jobs and drive up the American cost of living. And those are the arguments that I intend to make to anyone in a position of authority who will listen to them between now and January 20th."
Poilievre said the right thing to do for the U.S. would be to do more free trade with its best friend and closest ally.
Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly 3.6 billion Canadian dollars ($2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing for national security.
About 77% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S.
During Trump’s first term, his move to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA, and reports that he was considering a 25% tariff on the auto sector were considered an existential threat in Canada.
Trudeau's government successfully employed a “Team Canada” approach during Trump’s first term in office when the free trade deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico was renegotiated. But Trudeau’s minority government is in a much weaker position politically now and faces an election within a year.
Trudeau returned home after the dinner at Mar-a-Lago club in Florida without assurances Trump would back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner. Trump called the talks “productive” but signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.
The flows of migrants and seizures of drugs are vastly different. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border during the last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
Most of the fentanyl reaching the U.S. — where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually — is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia.
On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with irregular migrants at the southwest border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. That compares to 23,721 encounters at the Canadian border during that time.
Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at an event where it was announced that Prince Edward Island has signed on to the Federal School food program, in Mount Stewart, Prince Edward Island, Canada, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Ron Ward/The Canadian Press via AP)
Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks through the lobby of the Delta Hotel by Marriott, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
