Eric Mangini Says Ward's Hit Not Clean: Shipley Says "It's Part Of The Game"

If you haven't seen it yet, this is the hit that Cleveland's T.J. Ward put on Jordan Shipley during Cincinnati's 23-20 loss to the Browns.

Carson Palmer was so upset that he got into Ward's face, while other Bengals players were jawing about the hit, many of whom called it a cheap shot. Hey, what do you expect from a guy with the last name of "Ward"?

For his part as growing into the Browns' "enforcer" on defense, he said:

"I hit him with my shoulder," Ward said. "They [Bengals] tried to yap at me, but I ignored them. I would do it again."

Jordan Shipley would eventually just say that "it's part of the game" without further comment.

On Monday, Browns head coach Eric Mangini basically acknowledges that the hit wasn't clean.

"T.J. is not a dirty guy," Mangini said Monday, per Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "He's a young guy.  He's an aggressive guy, and he's an inexperienced guy, but he's not a dirty guy.  He's a good person.  He's a good kid.  I'm not going to try to take anything off of the way that he plays because I think it's a real strength, but there are things that he'll learn to do even better within the framework of what we all have to play with."

"I don't want to see our guys hitting guys in the head when they're defenseless," Mangini said. "We can be just as tough and do it in the framework of how it's supposed to be.  You like physical play, but you can't put the team in that situation where you give them a new set of downs."

The truth is, in some sadistic way, the hit actually benefited the Bengals, save for Shipley's concussion. The hit forced an incomplete pass that would have brought fourth down. A personal foul later and the Bengals were granted a new set of downs.