Cleveland Browns

Browns' Pettine troubled by Justin Gilbert's road rage incident

Published Sep. 15, 2015 12:34 p.m. ET

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Browns head coach Mike Pettine is confounded by Justin Gilbert's recent road rage incident, but it's not the reason the former first-round pick was inactive in Week 1.

Gilbert traveled with the team to New Jersey for its opening game against the Jets despite being involved in an auto accident that left his car in a ditch a day earlier. He was cited last Friday for failure to "maintain reasonable control of his vehicle" during a dispute with another driver.

Pettine called the latest incident involving Gilbert "troubling" but said that a hip injury is the reason why Gilbert didn't dress for Sunday's game.

"It is troubling. I don’t know what else to say on it," Pettine said via the Akron Beacon Journal. "Any time a player is involved with any type of incident like that, we gather as much information as possible and you try to provide as good as counsel as you can. We are always stressing to our guys to understand who you are and who you represent when you leave this building. That is not just with Justin. We try to get that message to all of our players."

Pettine said that he was still waiting to meet with Browns security personnel before making a decision on whether to discipline Gilbert because the team hadn't yet received all of the details about the incident from police.

Gilbert, the team's eighth overall pick last season, seemed to be finally making progress on the practice field after a disastrous rookie campaign. He has battled inconsistency when healthy, and this latest off-field distraction probably won't help.

"Well, it is certainly troubling," Pettine said. "When he had not been injured, he was coming in and stacking good days of work together. As always, it was his playing at a consistent level and also carrying it from the practice field to the game."

h/t: Akron Beacon Journal