The Good Soldier

I spent much of this past weekend screaming. Perhaps not the best of ideas as the lingering cold assaulting my cigarette scarred lungs rendered my voice already raspy and rusty.

But I couldn’t help it. The whirlwind first weekend of free agency stuffed in too many head scratchers for my excitable head.

Who the fuck is Jason Brown? Why did he nab that larger-than-life contract with the Rams? How the hell did the Bills fuck it up so badly with Derrick Dockery, letting him walk away for no compensation whatsoever? Why did the Giants sign two defensive linemen when they already have five or six starting caliber ones?

But something gave me pause above all else... and, yes, it's concerning the Lieutenant.

Kellen Winslow Jr is both undoubtedly a talent and undoubtedly difficult to work with. He hails from fine NFL stock inheriting both otherworldly skills and healthy skepticism to the league's machinations.

The NFL is not kind to its players on any other day than the one on which they ink a sizable contract or two... a day that doesn't come for most who don that jersey with the NFL logo stitched into the collar's base. Certainly not a truth that escaped Kellen Winslow Sr during his brilliant but injury-shortened Hall of Fame career.

Winslow Jr's first two seasons were lost to injury, one a byproduct of the game's violence, one his immaturity. (Interesting to note that Winslow's motorcycle accident, for all the high expectations surrounding him, didn't affect nearly the response that Ben Roethlisberger's accident a year later did... and I'm not talking public outcry but language in pro contracts.) He matched those two lost seasons with two brilliant ones, helping bring the Browns to the brink of the playoffs in 2007.

Last year, however, was a disaster in Cleveland. Injuries and indifference pervaded the club. Fellow pass catcher Braylon Edwards struggled with drops resulting from a lack of focus. After a decent start, teams keyed on Winslow and sunk what was one year prior a nearly unstoppable offense.

Midseason Winslow was hospitalized with a staph infection. It was the seventh incident of staph for the Browns in the past few years. Staph infection probably went a long way to ending center LeCharles Bentley's career and helped end Joe Jurevicius's season if not his career.

Let me repeat that. Seven players. Several of whom the franchise paid millions of dollars for to play. Over the course of two to three years. Staph infections.

Winslow spoke out about it when the Browns were remaining hush-hush on publicly and didn't address his concerns internally.

And this outspoken critique in part gets Winslow tabbed as a locker room cancer. For speaking out about what in NFL terms has become an epidemic.

Now, I'm not naive to Winslow's failings. He talks a big game. He's accomplished some good things, but nothing truly great yet. And he's gone to the media about lesser concerns.

But the team justified moving perhaps their pass catcher with best intersection of pure talent and accomplishment because he became a headache... and the media bought it hook, line, and sinker.

The ESPN article running down Winslow's trade to Tampa characterizes as Winslow as giving Cleveland "too many" headaches. It must be hard attempting a cover up of a team-wide health epidemic as opposed to actually fixing said epidemic.

I love the NFL but sometimes I feel like it's a world populated with high school principals, steadfast in their belief that the institution can do no wrong, that any honest open dialogue amounts to a punishable offense, whether that's a stint in detention or cutting short of a promising career.

And it's not just the teams, the media brandishes their finger-wagging disdain whenever there's a stereotype to pile on. Stereotype in this case, a big talking, big play receiver.

I'm not saying the Lieutenant is a saint. Rather, this notion that Winslow is a "troublemaker" given his resume on and off the field the past three seasons, from the time he's returned from his first two lost seasons, is short-sided moralization on the part of media allowing the Browns to absolve themselves of any blame by pushing it on Winslow.

Ask LeCharles Bentley about staph. Ask Joe Jurevicius. Hell, ask Winslow, I'd love to hear his side of the story again.

For their troubles, Cleveland is getting a second round pick this year and a fifth in 2010. For Tampa's troubles, they're getting an elite tight end now with a reason to prove himself. Stay classy, Cleveland.