Kellen Winslow Jr done
Winslow's injuries worse than thought?
Winslow's injuries worse than thought?
media reports out of cleveland indicate that browns tight end kellen winslow's injuries are worse than originally reported.
Winslow has, per newschannel 5 in cleveland, "a broken tibia and femur, along with a fracture to the large bone in his thigh" (which commonly is known as the femur, dr. News bunny). Winslow's acl is damaged and possibly torn, and there are lacerations on his kidney and liver.
There is concern in some circles that his football career is over.
Mary kay cabot of the cleveland plain dealer has written a compelling follow-up to pat mcmanamon's article from earlier in the week regarding winslow's motorcycling habits.
Per cabot, winslow became intrigued by motorcycle stunts when he heard a bike rumbling while playing paint ball in the back yard of his westlake home (we didn't know that paint ball was part of his broken-leg rehab regimen). Winslow investigated, and found that a guy was doing wheelies and other stunts on a motorcycle.
Winslow befriended the rider, jason campana, and winslow bought his own bike on april 9.
A week later, one of winslow's neighbors called the police on the sixth overall pick in the 2004 draft, who was "going up and down the street about 50 miles per hour" and "popping wheelies." winslow had cleared out before the police arrived.
Another neighbor tried to reason directly with winslow.
"one day he and someone else went down the street about 15 times doing wheelies," said dr. Robert nahigian. "one of them did a wheelie right in front of my house. After about 15 minutes, i waved him down."
nahigian told him that stunts weren't appropriate in a residential area. "i also told him that i was concerned about his own safety," nahigian said. "he told me he wasn't going over the speed limit."
nahigian also wondered why winslow was riding the bike, given that he still was recovering from a broken leg. "he would walk his dog and he wasn't even walking well before the accident," nahigian said.
On the day of the accident, winslow and friends apparently were practicing stunts. One observer believes winslow was trying to do a reverse wheelie, known in biker-dude lingo as an "endo."
next thing they knew, he was making like superman over the handlebars.
In our view, this information should view heavily in the team's deliberations as to whether to seek a full or partial reimbursement of the bonus money paid to winslow. Regardless of whether he knew that his contract prohibited him from motorcycling, his conduct was so clearly in violation of the document that the team would be setting a dangerous precedent by looking the other way.
Sure, it's hard not to feel some empathy for winslow given the injuries he suffered, but those feelings will be present whenever a guy gets seriously hurt doing something that, under his contract, he shouldn't have done.
Winslow took a colossally stoopid risk, not just with his own life and health but with the very investment by the browns that allowed him to buy the machine that might have led to his athletic and financial demise.
We originally thought that the browns would merely offer not to pay the remaining $2 million or so on his option bonus (due july 15) to resolve the issue, and we continue to believe that the team will do that if it looks like winslow will be able to play in 2006. But if/when it's confirmed that he's out for two or more seasons, we think the browns will analyze long and hard the possibility of cutting him loose and trying to get back as much of their bonus money as they can.
And we're still inclined to drop most of the blame on his agents, the postons, for the fact that winslow got hurt. Based on cabot's story, motorcycle stunts had become an obsession for winslow. If he talked at all with carl and/or kevin from april to may, winslow surely blurted out that he'd bought a motorcycle, and/or that he'd already learned how to do wheelies.
It'll be very interesting to see how the "he said, she said" plays out regarding this topic, especially with so much coin hanging in the balance.
Finally, though we're trying not to poke too much fun at winslow given his current circumstances, we're compelled to close this one out with an e-mail we received from a reader who defended winslow's actions:
"kellen was just trying to prove that when he signs a contract, he is a man of his word. The contract stated that kellen winslow cannot ride a motorcycle. So kellen being a man of his word went out and proved that he cannot ride a motorcycle."