DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Nice Read on Winslow.....

I thought this article on KWII was a magnificant read. Hope you enjoy it too..

Good Read

Winslow showing growth on and off the field
By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: November 5, 2007

CLEVELAND -- It would have been a crying shame, an emotional Kellen Winslow suggested on Sunday evening, had the Cleveland Browns' gallant comeback effort against the Seattle Seahawks fallen short.



And so the fourth-year veteran tight end felt no shame in crying -- weeping openly in front of his locker, tears streaming down his face, his chest heaving a bit -- after their 33-30 overtime victory. The win provided the Browns with a third straight win and a 5-3 record at the halfway point of an already surprising season.


"I'm an emotional guy," Winslow said. "I'm maturing."



As a person, it seems, even more so than as a player.


When he entered the league as a first-round choice in the 2004 draft -- the sixth player taken overall and bearing the pressure of living up to the lofty standards established by a father who has the same name and who went to the Hall of Fame having played the same position -- Winslow was the consummate Tough Guy.


The Soldier, he dubbed himself, sporting the kind of army fatigues that players from the University of Miami adopted more as a manifestation of their collective mind-set than as some kind of a fashion statement. Or, on another occasion, the Warrior. Even, at one point, the Chosen One.




Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Of Kellen Winslow's 11 receptions against the Seahawks Sunday, 10 produced first downs. Five came in third- or fourth-down situations.
But, unfortunately, the Soldier broke his right fibula heroically trying to recover an onside kick in the second game of his rookie year.


Then the Warrior, ill-advisedly tempting fate on a motorcycle with which he had precious little experience, sustained serious knee and other internal injuries in an accident that nearly ended his NFL career before it even much began the following spring.



And at the end of two years in the league, with his future uncertain and Cleveland officials threatening to recover part of the fortune in bonus money they had invested in him, the Chosen One appeared destined to be little more than another bad draft choice by a franchise that had turned the practice of squandering high-round selections into an art form.



But then, somehow, the light went on for Winslow.



Maybe that's what happens when your life, let alone your career, flashes before your eyes as you're tumbling over the handlebars of a sleek and speedy motorcycle, and are about to challenge, headfirst, a chunk of pavement significantly more unforgiving than even the hardest-hitting safety. Perhaps it's the result of long, tedious months of rebuilding a body once so exquisitely sculpted, but then ravaged by recklessness. Forced to confront one's own weaknesses and wounds, many of the latter self-inflicted, there often comes a point at which humility trumps hubris.



And at that point, no matter how tough your veneer, you allow yourself a good cry.


And, make no mistake about it, the tears Kellen Winslow shed so unabashedly on Sunday night were definitely good ones.


"This game," he said, after the mostly stunned media congregation had departed his locker stall and fled back to the press box to try to meet publishing deadlines, "it really meant a lot to us. It meant a lot to me. I mean, it really could be the beginning of something pretty big for us, you know? We just weren't going to quit. Nobody was going to quit."


Certainly not Winslow, who tied his career best with 11 receptions and established a career high for yards, with 125.



There was one drop in the end zone, on a pass that was about a foot too high -- although Winslow still got two hands on the ball. Winslow nearly allowed the drop to ruin his afternoon. But it was otherwise, even for a guy as self-critical as Winslow tends to be, a performance with which it was difficult to find fault.


Time and again in critical situations, quarterback Derek Anderson looked to Winslow, and time and again he delivered. Of his 11 catches, 10 produced first downs, and five came in third- or fourth-down situations. He also earned the Browns a first down when Seattle safety Brian Russell draped himself all over Winslow on another critical third-down play.


Said a frustrated Russell afterward: "The amazing part is, you knew they were going to him on all the big downs, and we still couldn't stop him. He just kept beating us."



Adding to the magnificence of Winslow's performance was that he himself was about as beaten up as a guy could be. He played the fourth quarter with his left shoulder hanging and, while he insisted in the locker room it was fine, there seems to be at least a slight dislocation. And his surgically repaired left knee throbbed, having forced him from the game for a few snaps in the second half on an especially hard hit.



But no matter the physical problem on Sunday afternoon, Winslow kept coming back. And as he again pondered the victory, so did the tears.


"I'm sorry, man, I just can't help it," Winslow said. "But it does feel good."


As well it should. In 2006, Winslow resurrected his career, catching 89 passes for 875 yards and two touchdowns. At the halfway point of this season, he has 42 receptions for 657 yards and three touchdowns. And it seems there is more where those numbers came from, even if Winslow's sudden lack of bravado prevents him from making any kind of predictions about where his limits lie.



This is, after all, the new Kellen Winslow, the one who speaks more with actions than with words. And, yes, sometimes even with tears.


"When I first came [into the league] I felt like I had a lot to prove and I didn't know how to go about it," Winslow said. "I wanted to tell everybody how good I was and I learned you don't have to do that. The great ones don't do that. The great ones let somebody else tell people how good they are."


Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com

Nice to see it from him. On field and off.

I truly hope this kid can last longer for us...i hate how he is not healthy right now...we already know the knee will never be 100% but the shoulder is what worries me...

Like son, like father: Winslow fights through pain to rally Browns
By TOM WITHERS, AP Sports Writer
November 5, 2007

BEREA, Ohio (AP) -- In an almost empty locker room, a teary-eyed Kellen Winslow struggled while stuffing personal items into a bag after an extra-long workday. His shoulder ached, his knee throbbed and his hip killed him.

He was hurting all over.

Most of his teammates had already showered and walked past. Winslow moved slowly, looking more like he was 54 than the 24-year-old physical specimen who routinely runs past NFL cornerbacks.

Winslow left everything on the field Sunday, playing like his Hall of Fame father famously did during an AFC playoff game on a humid December night in Miami decades ago. Anyone else might have succumbed to the pain.

Not Winslow. Cleveland's tough tight end, whose promising career nearly ended two years ago from injuries sustained in a near-fatal motorcycle crash, refused to quit during a 33-30 overtime win against Seattle.

"You've got to love that guy," cornerback Leigh Bodden said as Winslow packed up behind him. "He loves this game."

Beyond his 11 catches for 125 yards, Winslow's hard-nosed performance perhaps embodied these never-say-die Browns (5-3). Winslow just might will them to the playoffs.

He's becoming a leader, the guy everyone in the locker room follows. No one can debate Winslow's heart, determination or drive. He has lived up to his hype.

"I told you, I'm a soldier, man," Winslow said with a smile, playfully referencing his infamous "I'm a soldier" rant that drew him public scorn when he was a Miami Hurricane. "They weren't going to keep me out. They'd have to drag me off the field."

Maybe the Browns should have carried him -- on their shoulders.

If not for Winslow, Cleveland probably wouldn't have won. The four-year veteran made five catches for 58 yards in the fourth quarter, with four picking up first downs as the Browns came back from a 21-9 halftime deficit.

With Cleveland trailing late in the third quarter, Winslow snagged a 14-yard pass from Derek Anderson on third-and-8. Winslow landed hard on the turf from the tackle and was sluggish getting up. He staggered to the bench, his left side noticeably sagging.

On Cleveland's sideline, TV cameras showed Browns trainers massaging his left leg as Winslow sat grimacing. Moments later, he was up and weaving his way through players and coaches to get back on the field.

"He plays through a lot," Bodden said. "You have to respect that guy. He plays hard no matter what."

A few plays later, Winslow made a 13-yard catch on fourth down, setting up a 2-yard run by Jamal Lewis.

On the Browns' final possession of regulation, Winslow made four catches for 45 yards, including a 14-yarder that moved the ball to Seattle's 1, where Lewis barreled in for his fourth TD to put Cleveland ahead.

The Seahawks knew Winslow was good. Not this good.

"He's out there like another receiver," Seattle linebacker Lofa Tatupu said. "I know he plays tight end, but he gets open, has speed and runs good routes. We had our hands full."

Despite all his clutch catches, Winslow lamented one he didn't make.

Before his 14-yard grab, Winslow got his hands on a pass from Anderson in the end zone but couldn't bring it in.

"I missed it," he said. "To be great, you can't drop those."

Winslow wouldn't have said something like that a few years ago. That he would now is a sign of maturity.

He came into the league with a reputation, and it wasn't a good one. The son of Kellen Winslow, the San Diego Chargers great, the younger Winslow had all the physical tools. But he was aloof, cocky, even mean-spirited.

He played in just two games as a rookie before breaking his right leg. Finally recovered, he was just two months from reporting to training camp in 2005 when he suffered serious internal injuries in a motorcycle wreck while doing tricks in a parking lot.

Winslow would undergo several operations, including microfracture surgery on his right knee last winter.

The adversity could have broken him. Instead, it made him stronger.

"When I came in as a rookie, I felt I had a lot to prove, but I didn't know how to go about it, I think," he said. "I wanted to tell everybody how good I was. I learned you don't have to do that. The great ones don't do that. You just go out and do it and let other people tell you about it.

"You just go do it. You live and learn. I was 20 years old. I'm 24 now, I'm married, I'm growing up."

While he can be vicious to anyone wearing a helmet, Winslow has a softer side, too.

Following Sunday's game, Winslow sat quietly at his locker and dissected perhaps Cleveland's biggest regular-season win in five years. He was asked about the day in 1982 when his dad, dehydrated and exhausted, caught 13 passes for 166 yards and blocked a field goal in the final seconds to lead the Chargers past the Dolphins.

Afterward, the elder Winslow had to be helped off the field by teammates, an iconic NFL image.

"It's just want-to, man," Kellen said of the Winslow way. "That's all it is. It's how bad do you want it in crunch time."

Then Winslow bowed his head and fell silent. He cried. After a long pause, he looked up as a tear streaked down his face.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Winslow had no reason to be.

web page

Makes me so happy.

If you read that article, its why hes my favorite player ever to play the game, and that will ever play the game, there will never be anyone I like more as a player... In Cleveland we haven't seen that intensity since 1999... He brings it and he has overcome so much...

Just clickin'

I'll admit that I was critical of him coming out of college. And I was really critical of him with his motorcycle accident.

I'll just as easily admit that my opinion of him has turned around 180 degrees. He was man enough to mature on and off the field. I owe it to him to be man enough to admit he proved me wrong.

I'm glad he's on our team.

This just leads me to believe the orginization is being operated the right way,by the right people

winslow is fricken awesome

Hes a class ACT....Good for the sport!......Good for the BROWNS....

On a side note....

I hope we have him for a lot of years but I admit I worry about his health. Reading about how gnarly his pregame warm is to "break up the cartalige" in his knee or his perpetually busted shoulder, I wonder how this kid is going to be living, let alone playing in 2 or 3 years. I LOVE that he leaves it all the field and yes, his 80% is more than all but a few TE's in the league but it's going to catch up to him at some point. I hope he has a very restful and rejuvenating off season... which starts no earlier than, say, mid January.

"I'm a soldier-
These shoulders hold up so much- they won't budge, I'll never fall or fold up...
I'm a soldier-
Even if my collar bones crush or crumble, I will never slip or stumble...
I'm a soldier-
These shoulders hold up so much- they won't budge, I'll never fall or fold up...
I'm a soldier-
Even if my collar bones crush or crumble, I will never slip or stumble."


-eminem, "Soldier" from The Eminem Show


If he keeps this up, he'll feel the same kind of love in Cleveland that they reserve for folks like Jim Brown and Bernie Kosar. We love our football players- and Kellen Winslow II is a Football Player.

True.

Great article. Winslow has really surprised me in his maturity. He says all the right things, and his heart is as big as anyones. As much pain and heartache he caused the team, the fans, and himself his first 2 years, he was well worth the wait. He's not only great to watch on the field, but great to watch and listen to in the locker room. He's really changed for the best.


Thanks for posting that article.

he still needs to be a "Warrior" or "Soldier" when he is blocking for our running backs.

Mayb if he has a knee and a shoulder he would block like he is suppose to...
Lets not kid ourselves...he won't be a good blocker this year for sure...he is too hurt to actually block ppl...i remember earlier in the season when he wasn't so "dingged up" like he put it in his interview he was doing OKAY...or at least better than now when it came to blocking...

I think this would go in this forum,,, if not, feel free to move it REF...

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He's all heart
Winslow's emotional outpouring Sunday reveals a much deeper man behind the reckless-kid image Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Kellen Winslow showed a softer side of himself when he shed tears after the overtime victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, and he will do the same at 7 tonight when he's featured on ESPN's "E:60."

ESPN reporter Michael Smith arrived in Cleveland with the same perception of Winslow most people in the country have of the Browns tight end: that he's the punk who embarked on his soldier rant at the University of Miami (Fla.), that he's the reckless kid who almost ended his career - and his life - by performing stunts on a motorcycle, and that he talks endless trash with guys like Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter.

But Smith left Cleveland with the same feeling about Winslow that his teammates have and that fans are just beginning to understand: that he's one of the most passionate players in the NFL, that he'll sacrifice his banged-up body for the game, and that he's a big-hearted guy who's not ashamed to cry in public.

"People know Kellen from his soldier sound bites in college and from seeing him zip around a parking lot on his motorcycle," Smith said. "But I saw a side of him that most people never see. There's so much more to him than the fierce football player you see on the field. I think people's perceptions of him contribute to the fact he's not being celebrated enough."

Smith spent the day with Winslow and his wife, Janelle, whom Winslow has known since they were 13. Smith looked through their memory book and even read some of Winslow's old love letters to her.

"His wife means the world to him, and their two toy Yorkies are like their kids," Smith said.

But Smith saw the claws come out when he played Winslow in a video game of Madden football.

"You want to talk about running the score up?" laughed Smith. "He's ultra-competitive."

Winslow and Janelle then took Smith to the scene of his motorcycle accident and re-created it for him.

"Kellen explained how it happened and said, 'I'm just happy to be alive,' " Smith said. "He recounted his lacerated kidney and liver, his knee injury and all of the other injuries. It's amazing what he's overcome and what he's doing now - but he admitted he'll never be the same player he was before."

Although Winslow didn't get emotional at the site, Janelle did.

"She told me the story of how she was at home cooking and that Winslow told her he was going out for a little while," Smith said. "She said she had a premonition and asked him not to go. He said, 'Don't jinx me like that.'

"A little while later, she heard sirens and then looked out the window. Then she started running through the woods in the back of their house barefoot until she reached the parking lot. When she got there, they were just closing the doors to the ambulance with him in it."

Smith said he was struck by how much pain Winslow was in - with his surgically repaired right knee and dislocated shoulder - while they were just sitting at his house doing the interview.

"His wife said it breaks her heart how much pain he's playing in," Smith said.

He talked to Winslow teammates Braylon Edwards and Leigh Bodden and discovered the impact he's had on them.

"Braylon said he's never met anyone as competitive as K2," Smith said. "He said he's a better player because of Winslow's intensity and that it rubs off on everyone on the team."

During the Seahawks game, Winslow overcame injuries to his hip, knee, shoulder and back to match his career high with 11 receptions and set a career best with 125 yards. His willingness to leave it all out on the field inspired Bodden, one of his best friends on the team.

Bodden, a cornerback, had been struggling during the game with a sore back and had a tough time covering Seahawks receivers. When the offense was on the field, he was being treated on the sidelines. But whenever he looked out and saw Winslow making plays while in pain, he knew he had to go back in.

"You've got to love that guy," Bodden said. "He loves this game and he loves to do well. You just have to respect him. He plays through a lot of pain and he has tremendous passion for this game."

Smith said he hopes his piece helps change the national view of Winslow.

"Without his reputation, I think he would've been Comeback Player of the Year last year," Smith said.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

mcabot@plaind.com, 216-999-4670

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So it looks as if we are gonna see this piece on Winslow on ESPN 60 this evening at 7pm EST.... I'll be watching.. should be interesting..

Geez,,, all of a sudden, the Browns are getting lots of love aren't they.... I guess that's what happens when you start to win...



Oh,, for the link impaired.....

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/plaindea...&thispage=1

i'll be watching too.

I love Winslow, the guy goes all out every play.

I've also heard some bad things about him. Someone on the old board a couple of years ago said that he witnessed him picking a fight with an older man during pick-up basketball.

Whether he's a jerk or not though, he loves football and will put his body on the line for his team. Unfortunately, every year he plays I worry is gonna be his last. I don't think he can keep playing like this with that terrible knee injury he had. He's still definitely better than just about every TE in football when it comes to everything besides blocking IMO.

So yeah, I hope we can get another 2-3 years out of him. I also hope when he retires from football that he's able to walk.

My favorite thing about Winslow was when Braylon was describing him and explained that while it sounds silly, Kellen "is a soldier". He plays the game with so much intensity, as if the game was a battle

I sure am happy that he's on our team because when it's the 4th quarter and we need clutch catches, he isn't tired or hurt (or at least he never shows it). He's all business, suck it up and get the job done, and he's our guy. Period.

Quote:

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I've also heard some bad things about him. Someone on the old board a couple of years ago said that he witnessed him picking a fight with an older man during pick-up basketball.

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Ahh, who knows if those kinda stories are ever true.. maybe, maybe not. But it's by it's very nature one of those stories that had it really happened, some news hound would have dug around, found the older man and blown the whole thing out of wack anyway... So I have my doubts... But anything is possible...

wow i searched for this and it did not come up in the search, so i posted it. Didn't see it till now after it got deleted, its a great read and the team has to carry that momentum into this upcoming week.