Browns TE Kellen Winslow is reminding the football world that: (1) he has a mouth; (2) he's willing to use it; and (3) we might not always understand what he's saying with his foot wedged in it.
On Monday, Winslow ripped into the coaching staff, exhorting them to be more aggressive on offense: "Some of the coaches might just be holding us back a little bit," Winslow said, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "I don't mean to try to go behind their backs or whatever [Editor's note: Apparently, he's going behind their backs inadvertently], but let's go, let's air it out, let's run the ball, let's make plays, let's be exciting.
"I think we're being a little too conservative right now and we just need to unleash it," Winslow added. "Why wait? We're 0-2. We've got nothing to lose."
Winslow also is miffed that he's not on the field on third downs. "It's very frustrating," Winslow said. "We're losing and I'm not on the field. And I just don't get it. . . . The Giants run the same system as we do, the Cowboys run the same system as we do and [Jeremy] Shockey and [Jason] Witten are on the field on third down. I just don't understand why I'm not on the field sometimes."
By the way, we got a huge kick out of another one of Winslow's lines, which reminded us of the classic Cleavon Little sound bite from Blazing Saddles. "We were run-first oriented and that's fine," Winslow said. "But we were down, 14-3, in the first quarter, so we've got to whip the plays out and let's go."
Winslow explained that he has raised his concerns with coach Romeo Crennel, and that Winslow believes Crennel will take care of the problem. But given Winslow's decision to go public with his complaints, we're not so sure he'll be getting any satisfaction.
Indeed, the issue already has Crennel on the defensive. "He's not a wide receiver, first of all, so when you go three wides, he's not there," Crennel said. "I think you need to look at those plays that were run when we had that personnel group in the game and see if his presence would have made a difference on the plays that were called or not -- before we jump to conclusions about whether he should be on the field or not."
Of course, a tight end can be used with three receivers if the team goes with only one running back. But such logic might be lost on Crennel at a time when putting Winslow on the field on third down will lend credence to the notion that a player can get his way merely by *****ing to the media about it.
Our guess? Crennel will be having a heart-to-heart with Winslow, and soon. Among other things, Romeo might want to remind K2 that his father, K1, never pulled a stunt like this during his entire career.
Then again, Kellen Winslow Sr. never had to ***** about not being on the field on third down; he was so good on first and second down that leaving him out there all the time was a no-brainer.
So the ultimate message to K2 is this -- make more of the chances you're getting, and you'll then get more chances.
And p.s.: Shut the hell up.
