We reported last year that former Browns tight end Kellen Winslow missed time during the season due to a case of testiculus coconutus.
Neither the Browns nor Winslow ever acknowledged that fact.
The report apparently triggered untrue rumors that Winslow was suffering from a sexually-transmitted disease, or a mishap from taking a male enhancement drug.
And this prompted Winslow’s publicist to suggest that the Browns announce instead that Winslow contracted a staph infection from a car door.
The text messages flew back and forth, with the Browns eventually making it known that they wanted to keep a tight lid on evidence of yet another Cleveland player getting a staph infection.
Winslow subsequently vented his frustrations publicly, and the team responded by suspending him for a game. But the suspension was rescinded amid evidence of text messages confirming that the Browns tried to get Winslow not to disclose his health condition.
The ugly incident likely contributed to the firing of former G.M. Phil Savage and the departure of Winslow via offseason trade to Tampa. And now more of the truth is emerging.
Specifically, Winslow tells Seth Wickersham of ESPN The Magazine (via the Akron Beacon-Journal) that his “testicles were enlarged, to the point where it hurt to walk.”
Wickersham also reports that Winslow’s publicist floated the car-door theory, and that the publicist admitting the explanation would be “stretching the truth a bit.”
Winslow also described the treatment to Wickersham. “They had to drain it,” Winslow said. “They had a scalpel. They cut into it. I had to clean it every day with a Q-Tip, for two and a half weeks. It was the most painful thing I’ve ever been through.”
Per Wickersham, Winslow also confronted teammates for not supporting the fact that he had a staph infection.
“I was real disappointed when no one came to my defense,” Winslow told Wickersham. “They don’t want to get suspended or have conduct detrimental to the team, but you’ve gotta be a man sometimes.”
So, basically, Winslow is saying that their balls weren’t big enough.