Cleveland Browns tight end Kellen Winslow has skipped voluntary workouts this off-season, and he has suggested that he thinks he deserves a new contract. The team has said it's not planning to renegotiate Winslow's deal.
The team's position has the backing of an ex-player who knows how to influence people: Jim Brown, the Hall of Fame running back widely regarded as the best ever to play the game. Jason Cole reports:
"The team stood by Kellen when he got into his accident," said Brown, the Hall of Fame running back who serves as an advisor to the team. "He needed to respect that, come in and have another good year and then approach the team."
Brown is basically right about that, and that motorcycle accident Brown refers to is the basic reason that Winslow isn't entitled to a new deal. Although Winslow has outplayed his contract in the last couple of years, he also missed an entire season because of his own off-field irresponsibility. Let Winslow have a good 2008, and that might convince the Browns to give him a new deal in 2009.
Cleveland Browns coach Romeo Crennel has forgotten more about personnel evaluation than I'll ever know, but when he claims that his own wide receiver, Kevin Kaspar, is similar to New England Patriots wide receiverWes Welker, well, he's just plain wrong. The two aren't similar at all. In fact, they couldn't be much more different.
As athletes, they're very different: Kasper is 6-foot-1, has great speed and lit up the scouting combine coming out of Iowa in 2001. Welker is 5-foot-9, is slow by NFL wide receiver standards, and had such bad times at the 2004 combine that many teams took him off their draft boards. (He signed with the Chargers as an undrafted free agent.)
As football players, they're even more different: Welker runs good routes, has good hands and is one of the NFL's most productive possession receivers, with 112 catches last season. Kasper doesn't run good routes, doesn't have good hands and as a result has bounced around the league (if he makes Cleveland's roster, the Browns will be his sixth team) and caught just 24 passes in his career.
The only similarity I can see between these two players is that they're both white wide receivers. Have we really made so little progress that in 2008, we're still labeling people as "similar" simply because of skin color? Apparently so.
Some believed that it was a shout out to current Lions' quarterback Jon Kitna. Remember that Kitna was the Bengals' starter during Palmer's rookie year and became a mentor when Palmer took the starting gig in 2004. Since leaving for Detroit in 2006, the two have remained great friends.
But the shirt looks older than the 35-year-old Kitna. It looks like it may have been worn by former Bengals head coach Dick LeBeau in his heyday in Detroit during the '60s and '70s.
It turns out that Palmer has had the shirt longer than he's been a Bengal. He got it at the 2003 Senior Bowl, where the Lions staff coached his North team.
"Hey, do you care what's written on your shirt if you like it?" asked Palmer, pointing at the offending scribe.
Still, in an organization that can't keep its stars from voicing their desires to be elsewhere, it has to put a lump in the throat in the Bengals' faithful.
Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting (via PFT) that Browns receiver Joe Jurevicius developed a staph infection several weeks after having knee surgery in January, making him the sixth Browns player in the past four years to have a staph infection.
For Jurevicius, it does not appear serious. He is expected to participate in organized team activities in May and minicamp in June, and the surgery was just a clean-up of the knee, a very common, very minor procedure for NFL players.
But the larger issue of athletes battling staph infections -- and of the Browns' peculiar inability to steer clear of them -- is serious. Jurevicius learned that he contracted the infection in the knee about two weeks after the surgery, and he could have picked it up anywhere, but when it happens over and over again to the Browns, you wonder what in the world is going on.
Previously, center LeCharles Bentley, tight end Kellen Winslow, receiver Braylon Edwards safety Brian Russell and linebacker Ben Taylor all had staph infections while playing for the Browns. Cleveland Clinic infection specialists have visited the Browns' facilities and the team used a special anti-staph agent to disinfect the locker room, weight room and other places where players congregate. And yet another staph infection has struck.
All six players have accepted the invitation to hear Commissioner Roger Goodell call their names in person, stroll onto the stage at Radio City Music Hall, put on a baseball cap and hold up their new team's jersey. It might seem like a no brainer that the players would agree to show up, but last year Wisconsin offensive tackle Joe Thomas decided to skip the draft to go fishing. The Browns chose Thomas third overall.
Also last year, Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn ended up wishing he had skipped the draft to go fishing; he lasted a few hours longer than he thought he would before the Browns finally chose him 22nd overall. I don't think any of the six players at this year's draft will last that long, but of those six my money is on Ryan to be the last off the board.
Gib Shanley, who spent nearly a quarter-century as the radio voice of the Cleveland Browns, died Sunday. Here's a look at Shanley during his days as a 1970s sportscaster, in a local news promo that no Ron Burgundy parody could top:
Shanley called the Browns' 1964 NFL Championship Game victory over the Baltimore Colts, and he stayed with the team through the mid-1980s.
But he is best remembered for the night in November of 1979 when he ended a newscast that had reported on the American hostages in Iran by burning an Iranian flag on live TV. He told Iranians that if they were offended by his actions, they should leave the country. The TV station said it received hundreds of calls about the incident, almost all supporting Shanley.
Shanley was 76 years old and had been suffering from an undisclosed illness.
Pearland police had to chase Wright on foot, and in the statement they released, they sounded proud of their ability to run down an NFL defensive back:
"The foot chase was about a quarter of a mile," Sgt. Roy Castillo said in a prepared Pearland Police Department statement. "We had people on scene pretty fast, and I believe because of our quick response time and the mental and physical toughness of our officers to catch offenders, we were able to get him in custody quickly and safely."
Wright, who has previously played for the Vikings, Texans, Jaguars and Redskins, was then taken to jail, where he produced one of the better sports-related mug shots we've seen. I don't know what he's wearing, I don't know what the deal with his eyes is, and I don't know how a 30-year-old professional athlete can look that old.
Cleveland Browns running back Jamal Lewis appeared on ESPNews today and talked about his off-season activity of studying at Harvard:
"It's a great experience and a good networking tool," Lewis said, adding that NFL players including Ty Law and Sammy Knight joined him at Harvard Business School in classes this off-season.
Oscar De La Hoya is the best businessman in American sports, but one of the approximately 120 NFL players who spend their off-seasons taking business courses could some day rival De La Hoya for that title. Lewis, who owns his own trucking business, sounds serious about planning for his post-NFL life, and he could end up making more money in business than he has in football.
Three years ago, Lewis spent his off-season in federal prison on drug charges. Now he's spending his off-season at Harvard. Lewis is a guy who has put his mistakes behind him and has his life going in the right direction.
The Cleveland Browns have made their decision at quarterback, and while Brady Quinn might think he has a chance to compete for the job, the fact is, the contract given to Derek Anderson means Anderson is the starter in 2008.
In 2009, however, the Browns will have an interesting choice to make. James Walker of the Columbus Dispatch has an excellent report (via PFT) on the details of Anderson's contract:
+The deal includes a $7 million signing bonus.
+Anderson has a roster bonus of $5 million due before the 2009 season.
+Another roster bonus of $2 million is due before the 2010 season.
+Also included are Pro Bowl and performance incentives that total $1 million.
That 2009 roster bonus means that if Anderson doesn't play as well in 2008 as he did in 2007, he probably won't be back in 2009. Rather than paying a $5 million roster bonus, the Browns would, if Anderson has a sub-par season, just cut him and hand the starting job to Quinn.
So a year from now, one of two things will have happened: The team will have made the kind of financial investment in Anderson that indicates they want him to be the starter for good, or Anderson will be an unrestricted free agent and Quinn will be the Browns' starting quarterback.
At the 5:30 mark of the video, he talks about the much publicized fight between Chad Johnson and a coach during halftime of the Bengals 2006 playoff game against the Steelers.
"He swung at Marvin, and hit Marvin. Look at his left eye in the press conference after the game. I was there in the training room. He shattered the training room glass. Then he tried to swing on Hue Jackson as well"
He also got in a few more digs:
"Marvin doesn't have control of personnel...he didn't have control of keeping me" "
It's hard when you let certain people continue to get away with certain things......and then it becomes a repeated pattern and the next guy feels he can do that...and the next guy"
UPDATE: Magically, the video has been taken off YouTube. Hmmm.
Cleveland Browns tight end Kellen Winslow has skipped voluntary workouts this off-season, and he has suggested that he thinks he deserves a new contract. The team has said it's not planning to renegotiate Winslow's deal.
(Hat tip: 
Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer is 
Cleveland Browns defensive back Kenny Wright was arrested Thursday morning in Pearland, Texas, and charged with 
The Cleveland Browns have made their decision at quarterback, and while 
