Whether Browns assistant general manager Catherine Hickman thought her outfit choice through this Wednesday is a mystery. She attended her media availability that day, calmly answering questions reporters asked her. Unfortunately, Hickman’s fashion stole the show, for the wrong reasons.

She wore a ripped gray sweatshirt that read “Los Angeles Made Me Do It” across the front. Former linebacker Scott Shanle didn’t hold back.

“It is an entertainment business, but people work their a– off to buy tickets to take their family to these games, so when you trade the league’s best defensive player, have issues at QB, and are the running joke of the NFL, this is tone deaf as a front office member,” Shanle wrote on X.

The reaction was tied largely to Cleveland’s decision to trade star pass rusher Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams on June 1. The Browns received edge rusher Jared Verse and three future draft picks in return for Garrett, who had just put together a record-setting 2025 season with 23 sacks, the most in a single NFL season. The deal sent the two-time Defensive Player of the Year out of Cleveland after years as the face of the franchise.

And fans know very well that Garrett was pretty much one of the only reasons why Cleveland was even relevant. Any references to Los Angeles carry an implied meaning now for diehard Browns fans. The Garrett trade was easily the biggest shocker of the offseason; it was so big that even Aaron Donald thought of unretiring.

Garrett had already asked the Browns for a trade the previous year, but the situation appeared to settle when he stayed and signed a four-year, $160 million extension. Perhaps Garrett was disappointed at the lack of wins at Cleveland, and agreed to the Rams trade. But for it to be invoked by one of the team’s own was a mistake.

“You can’t wear this sweatshirt,” NFL analyst Marcus Mosher said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s intentional or not. Impressions matter. And this is an awful look.”

There is nothing in Hickman’s publicly known career connecting her to Los Angeles. The Montreal native joined Cleveland’s front office in 2022 after spending four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. In 2017, she became the first female assistant general manager in Canadian Football League history with the Montreal Alouettes.

She’s also been in demand for bigger roles. The Vikings interviewed her for their general manager opening in 2022, making her the first woman to interview for an NFL GM job, and the Titans received permission to interview her for their GM vacancy in January 2025.

The sweatshirt also brought back controversy over another Browns clothing controversy. In November 2019, then-head coach Freddie Kitchens was seen wearing a “Pittsburgh Started It” shirt, referring to the Browns-Steelers fight in which Garrett hit Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph with his own helmet.

Cleveland later said Kitchens had received the shirt from his daughters “as a joke” and wore it while taking his family to a movie. The team also acknowledged that he “understands it’s not a good look.” But Steelers players were unhappy with the decision and criticized Kitchens for wearing the shirt just days before the teams were scheduled to meet again.

Now, Cleveland is heading into the 2026 season with Todd Monken as head coach and plenty of questions at quarterback. The Browns have chosen Deshaun Watson over rookie Shedeur Sanders as their starter, a decision that has already split the fanbase ahead of Week 1.

With only three winning seasons and one playoff win since 1999, the sweatshirt incident quickly drew attention, even if Hickman never meant it as a reference to Garrett’s departure.