K2 & Browns - Jaguars Pick

K2 Suspension
I don’t get it. Why are the Cleveland Browns in a pissing match with their best player (K2)?

After a loss, he (Kellen Winslow) said some things he should not have said publicly. Yes, he should have kept it “in house” and spoken to Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel first before going public. He was wrong in the approach he took. We can all agree on that.

However, he did not throw any teammates under the bus nor did he rip his coach. Heck, he didn’t even ask to be traded - yet.

K2 voiced his views on an off-the-field matter – the cause and disclosure policy of his latest injury.

He did take a shot at the team’s GM (Phil Savage), or as we dubbed him a while back -“Boy Wonder,” when we questioned some of his personnel decisions before it was in vogue to do so.

As we see it, Savage simply showed his thin skin in his response. Why else would you suspend a player and dock him one game’s pay ($230,000) for such an offense?

You want to fine him – fine. Hit him in the pocketbook hard – say $100,000. That sends a clear message to all concerned. Then move on and put this behind you. There are games to be played and hopefully won.

Why make matters worse?

Think about it – had Winslow complained about the game plan, Romeo’s in-game coaching or Butterfingers’ horrid performance, he likely would not have been suspended. But since he went after Savage, he’s thrown overboard.

Making an example of Winslow is not going to help Crennel maintain the little control he has left of this bunch. It actually makes his job even harder.

And sending Crennel out to be the public face for this organizational move of suspending Winslow was ChickenSHIT behavior if you ask me.

My guess is Crennel did NOT want Winslow suspended. He knows K2 is a “decent kid” as he often described him “who can get emotional at times.” Does that sound like a coach who wants this player suspended?

Yet, he (Romeo) was forced to do Savage’s dirty work and face the cameras when he should have been focusing on Jacksonville game tape.

Savage should have had the guts to man up and do the dirty work himself. That’s in his job decription when it comes to this type of personnel move.

Instead, he acted like some closers do when they get tagged and lose the game – he hid in the trainer’s room afterwards, or in Savage’s case, sent out a press release then hid under his desk for three days.

And what has Phil created?

We have a player who is, in essence, taking the team to court to get his game check back. We have a team going to battle this Sunday without its best player when it did not have to be that way. We have an off-the-field distraction for this organization and its players that could have been avoided that will last at minimum into next week when K2 comes back. Nice work.

All this was created because Savage was offended.

I wonder what the Lerner family is thinking tonight about the decisions made to give both Romeo and Phil extensions before their contracts ran out. That’s right, Romeo and Phil took this team to the playoffs each of the past two seasons.

Whoops. I forgot, that never happened. Somebody call me and remind why those extensions were given again. I seemed to have forgotten.

What are you going to do for an encore Phil? I know – trade K2 in the off-season then tell the fans how much better the team will be without its best player.

I can hear Phil at that press conference now.

“We made this move because it was the right organizational move to make and because Kellen and the team agreed it was best for all concerned. We will move forward now with the players we have, the players that want to be part of the great tradition that is the Cleveland Browns.”

The best part is some moron the next day will write a column agreeing with Savage and point to the win over the Giants as a prime example that the Browns don’t need a Pro-Bowl tight end in his prime to win football games.

And you thought I was kidding when I said things were starting to spin out of control a couple weeks ago.

Browns – Jaguars
What about the game? That’s right, the Browns play this Sunday. We almost forgot.

The K2 distraction took the "twin meltdown" of last week (DA & “Butterfingers” in Washington) off the local front pages this week. Those two got lucky.

That’s okay, something tells me we haven’t seen DA’s last errand pass nor “Butterfingers’” last drop in 2008.

We like Jacksonville to kick a field goal late to win by three in their building – 24-21. I have no special insight on this one. I just like the home team thinking they are slightly better right now than the Browns. I do expect the Browns' offense to show up and actually put some points on the board this Sunday.

In the end however, we see the Jaguars at 4-3 Sunday night and the Browns sitting at 2-5, Brady Quinn (aka:the other guy) continuing to be “on high alert” as Romeo says, and K2 preparing to give testimony at his hearing versus the Browns on Tuesday.

You can’t make this stuff up if you tried.