Kellen Winslow Appeals Suspension-Expedited for Sunday-Browns Teammates React

(Sunday morning update: The Browns have lifted the suspension of Kellen Winslow after text messages surfaced from a Browns PR employee that pressured Winslow to keep quiet about his staph infection.  Winslow will still not play against the Jaguars.)

(Since the posting of this article, Phil Savage has discussed the Kellen Winslow suspension on his weekly Cleveland radio spot. We posted about Savage’s comments, which includes a link to the audio. Also, Savage said that the hearing for the suspension, as of late last night, was schedule for Tuesday — this is different than what was being reported earlier this morning.)

Tony Grossi of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer is reporting that Kellen Winslow has predictably appealed his one-game suspension, and that the appeal will be expedited by the NFL so as to have a resolution by this weekend. Even if the suspension is overturned, it would not necessarily mean that Kellen Winslow would play on Sunday when the Browns take on the Jacksonville Jaguars; the Browns could still make Winslow inactive for the game. However, Kellen would recoup his $235,294 game check.

Kellen Winslow was suspended earlier this week for the comments he made Sunday regarding the nature of his hospitalization, comments that were deemed to be detrimental to the team by Phil Savage. Many people, including me, have thrown out the hypothesis that one of the factors influencing Winslow’s motivations in making his comments is the his relationship with notorious agent Drew Rosenhaus.

Browns players were pretty vanilla in their comments, trotting out the typical cliches of “it’s the organization’s decision” and “we have to just pull together” and so forth. You can read the reactions of team leaders like Jamal Lewis and player rep Darnell Dinkins in the Grossi column linked above.

The most interesting nugget in Grossi’s column is the following excerpt:

In his written statement after the suspension, Winslow said he spoke out because “there is a health issue that needs to be addressed further,” which speaks to seven player cases of staph since 2004.

But no player interviewed on Wednesday supported Winslow on that point.

“I’m not worried about staph. I’ve never had staph. I’m not worried about that,” said linebacker Andra Davis, another team captain.

“Guys have been made aware of how to help prevent [staph],” Dawson said. “We had a meeting in training camp where we went over everything we can do as individuals. The organization has done everything we could ask them to do. So I think the locker room’s good with it.”

Everyone who follows the Cleveland Browns realizes that the staph epidemic that has plagued the team and its players over the past few years is a serious problem that needs to be addressed and fixed with exigence. However, if Kellen Winslow’s comments were truly warranted and in the “whistle-blower” spirit that many people have claimed they were, I would expect more public support for the comments from his teammates.

Of course, perhaps they are all afraid of being suspended and docked game checks. If Winslow’s appeal gets overturned, we may very well see more players be candid about the issue if, in fact, others feel as strongly as Winslow. For right now though, Kellen Winslow appears to be a rogue voice in a locker room that seems content with the actions taken by the Cleveland Browns.

In fact, Joshua Cribbs had a great quote that seemed to chalk Winslow’s outburst up to the emotional nature of the Browns talented tight end:

“His head is in the right place now,” Cribbs said (as quoted in the Grossi column). “Kellen, he always says what he feels. He speaks his mind. He has a lot of emotion and he brings that same emotion to the game. So we can’t fault him for that. But we have advised him to keep it among the team. He understands that.”

For the Browns, this situation will get better and become less of a focus with each passing day. The best possible next step is a win over Jacksonville on Sunday, regardless of whether Kellen Winslow plays or not. It sounds like Winslow is forward, his teammates are moving forward, and the Browns have a chance to get to one game within .500 and defeat and another potential AFC playoff team.

It is unfortunate that this week has been marred by such an unnecessary distraction; but it is a good test of the leadership and mettle of the Browns locker room. If they can overcome all of this and beat a really good team on Sunday, there could be hope for 2008 yet. Such a win, in the face of such a distracting week, could provide a lot of confidence and momentum moving forward, especially if Kellen Winslow returns motivated to do his talking on the field. If the Browns come out flat though, and lay an egg, we’ll know all we need to know about a team that would then be 2-5 and pretty much in a destitute sitation.

I don’t think anyone is in a position to accurately predict right now what will happen Sunday. We’ll just have to watch the game and find out.

[tags]cleveland browns, nfl, football, kellen winslow[/tags]

Tags: Cleveland Browns, football, kellen winslow, NFL

---------------

If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing with your friends: