On Thursday, Jets tight end Kellen Winslow said that no one on his former team, the Browns, can guard him. On Friday, a member of his former team responded.
“He doesn’t play a whole lot so he’s not gonna be much of a threat for us,” linebacker D’Qwell Jackson said, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “It’s gonna be a fun game. Both teams, we want to win the game and K-2, he likes to talk. We understand that, but in all seriousness, the guys who are gonna be on the field, we worry about those guys.”
Jackson, who played three years with Winslow in Cleveland, said more about Winslow’s lack of playing time and abundance of talking time.
“It’s no secret K-2 likes to run his mouth a lot and I’m happy he’s with a team and he’s doing well but we’ve game planned towards the guys who are going to be on the field,” Jackson said. “He doesn’t play a whole lot so I’m not going to get caught up in a guy that’s watching the game for most of the time that his offense is out there on the field so I’m not worried about K-2. That’s the type of personality that he is. Him and I are good friends and I knew something was gonna come out this week from him at some point so I’m sure I’ll see him during out pregame warm ups and we’ll talk but I’m used to K-2 and his ways.”
Safety Tashaun Gipson said Winslow’s words didn’t even register with the locker room.
“If Calvin Johnson said it, that’s different,’' Gipson said. "[Winslow] can say what he wants to say. He’s still got to go out there and perform and what he does Sunday I guess will tell it all. . . . You’re supposed to have that confidence. I respect him for speaking up and saying something like that. If you want to stay successful, you’ve got to have that kind of confidence so I tip my hat off to him, even having the courage to say that.’'
Winslow has had the courage to say plenty of things during his career, starting with his “I’m a f--king soldier” rant at the University of Miami. And he’s had the courage to do plenty of things, culminating in motorcycle tricks that wrecked his knee and derailed a potential Hall of Fame career nearly nine years ago.