Cleveland Browns (2008 Season)

[jlb1705]

Originally Posted by LitlBuck

Sorry, I forgot this one in my previous post but why did the Browns pick up Cousins. I don't think there is a slot receiver in the NFL that he could cover. In fact, he probably couldn't even cover himself. That certainly was a waste of money. A brilliant pickup by Savage.

Dude couldn't cover Papa Smurf if he had to.

Originally Posted by LitlBuck

His dad was one hell of a player and I can't remember him having any problems out in San Diego. You would think he would tell his son to shut up and play ball.

After hearing the way his dad speaks/carries himself as a TV personality nowadays, I'll disagree. His dad may have had an exemplary attitude in his playing days, but he seems like he's been the type to be an enabler for his son to be a total dick and a spoiled brat.

[billmac91]

Originally Posted by jlb1705

Dude couldn't cover Papa Smurf if he had to.



After hearing the way his dad speaks/carries himself as a TV personality nowadays, I'll disagree. His dad may have had an exemplary attitude, but he seems like he's been an enabler for his son to be a total dick and a spoiled brat.

Your absolutely right about Kellen Winslow, SR. Dude is a straight up enabler. You can just tell he was the type of dad that let Kellen think he was the greatest...it may be a generalization, but when you listen to Sr. nowadays, you can tell he isn't the must humbledude either.

Regarding Cousins, what was our biggest concern coming into the season? Easily DB. We signed a stop-gap to fill it. It is burning us.

[osugrad21]

DDN

Browns TE Winslow appeals suspension


By Tom Withers
Associated Press

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

BEREA ? Pro Bowl tight end Kellen Winslow appealed his one-game suspension for critical comments he made about the Cleveland Browns' handling of his hospitalization with a staph infection, the latest development in a bizarre back-and-forth squabble.
Winslow was suspended without pay by general manager Phil Savage on Tuesday for comments and behavior disparaging to the organization. Winslow was critical of Savage and said he only came forward to reveal he had staph ? for the second time ? out of concern for his teammates' health.
Denise White, a publicist with EAG Sports Management, said Winslow appealed the suspension and filed the appropriate paperwork with the NFL Players Association.
Union attorney Adam Kaiser will represent Winslow in an expedited grievance proceeding before an arbitrator in Cleveland on Friday or Saturday. If Winslow loses, he will sit out Sunday's game in Jacksonville and forfeit $235,294, his one-game paycheck. If Winslow wins, he could keep his money and Kaiser said it's possible the 25-year-old could be reinstated in time to play against the Jaguars.
Cont..

[osugrad21]

DDN

Browns have no shortage of staph


Thursday, October 23, 2008
Browns' staph cases since 2003:
Kellen Winslow, TE. First bout occurred in 2005 after surgery to repair a torn knee ligament.
LeCharles Bentley, C. Remains out of football after being diagnosed in 2006, shortly after surgery to repair a torn tendon in his left knee.
Joe Jurevicius, WR. Still battling back from infection that surfaced two weeks after his arthroscopic knee surgery in January.
Braylon Edwards, WR. Missed two games in 2005; infection surgically removed from his right arm.
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[osugrad21]

CPD

Winslow gets quick action on appeal as Browns teammates keep their distance from dispute

by Tony Grossi Wednesday October 22, 2008, 6:06 PM


Roadell Hickman/The Plain DealerKellen Winslow's Browns teammates showed sympathy for their currently suspended friend on Wednesday, but also said they didn't share his concern about staph infections among fellow players.
Do the Browns have a major problem with staph infection in their headquarters facility, as tight end Kellen Winslow claimed? And do players feel muzzled about speaking their mind in the wake of Winslow's one-game suspension handed down by General Manager Phil Savage on Tuesday?
These questions were posed to players the day after Winslow was docked a game check -- in his case, $235,294 -- for saying the club purposely concealed his staph infection from teammates.
Through his representation, Winslow formally notified the NFL Players Association on Wednesday of his appeal of the suspension.
"It's a grievance proceeding under the CBA, and it's expedited, meaning it will be decided by the arbitrator prior to Sunday," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in an email response.
The players union will represent Winslow and the NFL Management Council will represent the Browns in a grievance proceeding, Aiello said.
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[osugrad21]

CPD

Browns Insider: Heiden hurting, but he's still aching to play vs. Jacksonville

by Mary Kay Cabot Wednesday October 22, 2008, 7:57 PM


Tracy Boulian/The Plain DealerBrowns tight end Steve Heiden has seven receptions this season for 78 yards.
Winslow will get a quick hearing on appeal

Browns tight end Steve Heiden, who will start in place of Kellen Winslow Sunday if the suspension holds up, sat out Wednesday's practice with a right pectoral injury suffered against the Redskins, but hopes to play in Jacksonville. "I'll be fine," said Heiden. "If I had to tell you today, I'd play. We'll treat it up and see how it goes, but it doesn't feel too bad."
Heiden said he felt pain in the first half against the Redskins, but doesn't remember how he got hurt. "I just started feeling the soreness," he said.
Coach Romeo Crennel also said he's expecting to have Heiden available for the game. If he can't go and Winslow is out, Darnell Dinkins would start and rookie Martin Rucker could be pressed into service as the second tight end.

But the Browns are counting on the dependable Heiden to be there, and excited about how he played against the Giants when Winslow was out with his staph infection. Heiden caught five passes for 59 yards and Dinkins caught a 22-yard touchdown.
"When we didn't have [Winslow] last time, nobody blinked, nobody stressed out about anything," said quarterback Derek Anderson. "Steve's a damn good tight end and he can step in."
But Heiden isn't resting on his laurels.

Cont...

[osugrad21]

CPD

Bud Shaw's Sports Spin: A GM missing in action?

by Bud Shaw Wednesday October 22, 2008, 6:14 PM


In this episode of Dysfunctional Family Feud...
Kellen Winslow has appealed his suspension in a story that will now carry late into the week.
Winslow and Phil Savage have more in common than they think in this dispute.
They've both hung their head coach out to dry.
Winslow repeated his criticism of the organization even after Romeo Crennel talked to him on the flight home from Washington. That goes beyond heat-of-the-moment emotion to complete selfishness, utter disregard for his team and total contradiction of the mutually agreeable stance he took just a few days earlier when he said, "just because I catch a football doesn't mean I should tell what's wrong with me or what happened."
That gave Savage, the reluctant GM, valid reason to suspend Winslow. Now a beleaguered head coach is without his star tight end on the road facing the prospects of going 2-5. Good timing.
Cont...

[osugrad21]

Canton

Teammates react to Winslow suspension
Thursday, October 23, 2008
By STEVE DOERSCHUK
STEVE.DOERSCHUK@CANTONREP.COM

BEREA Questions swirl around the Cleveland Browns like a Tornado Alley twister. One can only guess how they'll hit the rest of the 2008 season.

Will the Kellen Winslow Jr. suspension blow the team further off course Sunday at Jacksonville?

What will be left of the season when Winslow returns, assuming it's when and not if?

How is the staph-infection issue playing on players' psyches? Will Winslow and Cleveland want each other when the suspension blows over ? and for how long?

Will tickets be easy to get and cheap for Nov. 2 vs. Baltimore if the Browns' record falls to 2-5 at Jacksonville?

Plenty of Browns showed up to talk during Wednesday's media period. In some cases, they walked on eggs as they talked, but they looked media members in the eye.

Captain Andra Davis, for example, had this to say of Winslow, who has appealed his one-game suspension through the NFL Players Association:

"Fred Taylor is an excellent running back. We're in a situation where we have to pretty much win this game."
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[osugrad21]

Canton

Browns have 10 games to turn season around
Browns notebook
Thursday, October 23, 2008
BY STEVE DOERSCHUK
STEVE.DOERSCHUK@CANTONREP.COM

BEREA Washington was merely this week's woe. The Browns' other losses were worse.

? The bug-on-a-windshield opener against Dallas.

? The wimp-out game against Pittsburgh, settling for a field goal with 3:21 left to trail 10-6, then never getting the ball back.

? The third quarter from hell at Baltimore.

Relatively speaking, not quite getting to overtime at Washington wasn't so bad.

"We were inches from going to overtime," linebacker Andra Davis said of Phil Dawson's miss on a 53-yard field goal.

Washington cornerback Carlos Rogers said the Browns "looked confident," an extension, he assumed, of the 35-14 Monday nighter against the Giants.

"Look at St. Louis," Rogers said. "They gained confidence when they beat us, then look at what they did to Dallas."

Nice for them. For the Browns, making Washington nervous still left them close to a breakdown.

At 2-4, they need to go 8-2 the rest of the way to match last year's 10-6. How does a 2-4 team even think about going 7-3, the record it would take to luck into the postseason at 9-7?

Cont...

[IronBuckI]

Originally Posted by LitlBuck

I would not be surprised when both of them are playing and they are in the huddle if they are not both telling Anderson that day are wide open on every pass play that he is calling.

Too bad Anderson doesn't have the accuracy to hit them. Even if they are wide open on every pass play.

[LitlBuck]

PD

Kellen Winslow appeal delayed until Tuesday, Cleveland Browns GM Phil Savage says

<H3>by Tony Grossi/Plain Dealer ReporterThursday October 23, 2008, 11:23 AM
</H3>
Kellen Winslow's appeal of his Browns suspension won't be heard until Tuesday, General Manager Phil Savage said this morning. It means Winslow definitely will not be available Sunday in Jacksonville.
If Winslow should win his appeal, he would recoup some or all of his game check of $235,294.

In his first spoken comments about the Winslow controversy, Savage said on WTAM that Winslow was suspended because his remarks "really called into question the integrity of our medical staff and our organization."
"After all of us had been through since 2005, the comments really called into question the integrity of our medical staff and the organization as a whole," Savage said. "To compromise that trust after the Browns had stood by Kellen through the motorcycle episode and knowing without question we had done everything in our power to combat this staff infection problem, it just showed a lack of professional restraint.
"The Browns are bigger than one person, bigger than Randy Lerner, bigger than Romeo Crennel, bigger than me and bigger than any player on this team.
"We couldn't and won't allow one person to tear down the organization, so we had to do something."
Continued

[osugrad21]

ABJ

Browns should release disruptive Winslow The time has come to release Winslow
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports columnist

Published on Friday, Oct 24, 2008
The Browns suspended Kellen Winslow for one game.
They should go further and give him the release that he desires.
Winning isn't worth what Winslow has put the Browns through the past couple of weeks.
General Manager Phil Savage made that clear during an overly emotional radio interview Thursday morning on WTAM (1100-AM). It wasn't what Savage said, because he didn't reveal a lot, but how he said certain things that make this plain.
And given the circumstances that led to his speaking, it's understandable Savage was upset.
Just like it's apparent that the Browns were right to suspend Winslow, that his actions warranted the suspension.
Winslow can talk all he wants about staph and how he wants to look out for his teammates.
His public display was about
protecting himself and about his desire to leave the Browns.
He's an amazingly talented player with a drive to be great. I've been one of his biggest supporters, for good on-field reasons.
Cont..

[osugrad21]

ABJ

Winslow grievance pushed back Suspension hearing is Tuesday, so tight end won't play this weekend
By Marla Ridenour
Beacon Journal sports writer

Published on Friday, Oct 24, 2008
BEREA: Pro Bowl tight end Kellen Winslow's expedited grievance hearing on his one-game suspension has been pushed back to Tuesday, General Manager Phil Savage said in his weekly radio appearance on WTAM (1100-AM) on Thursday.
That means Winslow will not play Sunday at the Jacksonville Jaguars and saves coach Romeo Crennel from deciding whether to allow Winslow on the team plane Saturday had the four-year veteran won his appeal. An attorney for the NFL Players Association had hoped to schedule the arbitration hearing for today or Saturday. Now Winslow will be left with the goal of trying to recoup all or part of his game check of $235,294.
Hospitalized for three days earlier this month, Winslow has been barred from practice and team headquarters until Monday. He has practiced only once in a competitive setting since Sept. 26.
The NFLPA did have a representative in Berea on Thursday to ''listen to each side's position,'' Crennel said.
As for a report on NFL.com that the Browns shopped Winslow before the Oct. 14 trade deadline, Crennel said, ''No, we didn't try to trade him before the trading deadline. Now there may have been some inquiries and that happens all the time with players. A team might call and say 'Hey, what about so and so? Are you guys interested in doing anything?' That might have happened; I'm not going to say that it did or didn't. But we were not actively trying to trade him.''
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[osugrad21]

CPD

Winslow case set for Tuesday as Savage, Rosenhaus state their cases

by Tony Grossi Thursday October 23, 2008, 7:42 PM


Tracy Boulian/The Plain DealerKellen Winslow will definitely miss Sunday's game in Jacksonville, although a favorable ruling in his appeal could return his week's pay.
Kellen Winslow's appeal of his one-game suspension will be heard on Tuesday, assuring the Browns tight end will miss Sunday's game in Jacksonville. Coach Romeo Crennel said that representatives of the NFL Management Council were scheduled to arrive Thursday in Berea to conduct interviews with representatives for Winslow and those of the Browns.
The grievance, which seeks to recoup Winslow's game check of $235,294, will be heard in front of Rosemary Townley, an arbitrator in the New York City area who is one of four arbitrators who decides non-injury grievances of NFL players.
According to the NFL collective bargaining agreement, Townley must issue a decision within five days of the hearing. Her decision is final.
Whether Townley's ruling puts an end to the controversy surrounding Winslow and General Manager Phil Savage's disciplinary action is unknown.
This case escalated on Tuesday when both sides issued written statements to explain themselves.
Cont...

[osugrad21]

CPD

Browns Insider: Edwards says offense unable to find the groove of '07

by Tony Grossi Thursday October 23, 2008, 6:49 PM


Tracy Boulian/The Plain DealerFor most of this season, important receptions that would keep Browns drives alive or result in big plays have been slipping away from Braylon Edwards.
Unofficially, Braylon Edwards has 10 drops and 20 catches in his post-Pro Bowl season. Without mentioning the drops, Edwards might have touched on why he's having more trouble hanging on to the ball.
"In terms of the season, it's a situation where I don't think anybody's in a groove," Edwards said Thursday. "I don't think me. I don't think Derek [Anderson]. I don't think the offensive coordinator [Rob Chudzinski]. We've had a couple games when I only got three passes a game. We all have to find a way to get in that groove."
Asked why the offense still isn't in a groove six games into the season, Edwards said, "For whatever reason, we're not playing well. And we're not calling the kind of plays we did last year. We're not going after teams like we did. I think we're struggling, trying to get guys involved.
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