What a mess
Posted October 22nd, 2008 by Dan
For about the last 24 hours or so, when word of Kellen Winslow's suspension leaked out, I've been trying to think about what to write.
Is it Winslow's fault? Is it Romeo Crennel's fault? Is it Phil Savage's fault?
At first, I blamed it on Savage, considering he couldn't spare a few minutes to give one of his stars a call while he was in the hospital. (And apparently doesn't do it with other players)
Then, I blamed Winslow. He needed to more callous with the entire situation and not spout off to the media.
Earlier today, I was blaming Crennel for not telling the team. From AP:
Despite a disturbing number of staph cases in recent years, the Browns did not inform their other players that tight end Kellen Winslow was hospitalized with a staph infection earlier this month.
One day after the Browns suspended the Pro Bowl tight end for one game without pay for comments and behavior disparaging to the organization, coach Romeo Crennel said the team kept Winslow's illness private after reaching an agreement with him not to disclose his medical condition.
"He was in the hospital and it was a personal issue," Crennel said Wednesday in explaining the team's decision to keep Winslow's illness from his teammates.
Patrick McManamon has a very good recap of the whole scenario on his blog. Since he gets paid to do it, he's much better at this conjecture than I am, so check it out.
Now that this thing has basically run its course, I'm back to blaming Savage. Take away the blabbing to the media aspect of the situation, and it's incredibly hard to fault Winslow. Is anything he had to say incorrect? If he was just complaining about the team playing bad, would he be suspended?
Most people are convinced he's only doing this because he's upset about his contract situation. Others think he was suspended because the Browns don't want him.
I don't believe either.
To me, this is just a situation of "Kellen being Kellen" and the Browns holding him on a short leash due to his attitude and the motorcycle incident.
Still, Savage could have remedied the situation just by giving Winslow a call in the hospital and being up front with the media about the situation. Problem solved.
Instead, as McManamon wrote today, Winslow's days in Cleveland are numbered. And that's sad. He's a heck of a lot of fun to watch and plays the game the right way.
Notes…
Indeed, there is more going on with a 2-4 team than a staph infection situation. Such as…
Wait, actually there isn't. Check back in tomorrow because I'll have some thoughts on what I want to see in Sunday's game. Please note, it will include nothing about Kellen Winslow!
On Sunday, I'll be live-blogging the game, so stop in and say hello.
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:26 am
There seems to be a small pattern between Winslow and Bentley. Both have told similar stories and implied fault on Savage's behalf. It makes you wonder what the team's motives are/were with guys who are a bit outspoken, compared to players who had similar situations but were a bit more tame (Ben Taylor, Brian Russell).
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:51 am
There's a lot of blame to go around. I think Winslow really screwed up by confronting Savage in public ( outside locker room ) in uniform for a heated discussion. GMs don't want to be intimidated or embarrassed by players. I think that incident had as much to do with Savage's response as anything else.
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Yeah, with two situations, you can see a pattern start to develop a little bit. Hopefully that pattern doesn't become a trend.
Bob Frantz on WTAM had a good take on this today, though. What player only gets staph for three days? Bentley almost dies because of it and The Solja has it for three days? Savage said today Winslow's situation was a non-football related one that happened during the bye week. There's so much to this story people will never know.