Maybe the fact he had a life-threatening blood clot last year makes Jason Pinkston a little more sensitive.
But the Browns guard said the team was “lucky to be alive” after a rough landing on their short flight from Cincinnati Sunday night.
“It was terrifying,’' Pinkston said, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “It was the real thing. The weather was so bad. We were coming in to land and [the pilot] had to go kind of fast to balance it out and we came down and we hit on two wheels. The [left] wing was literally three feet from hitting the ground.
“We’re actually pretty lucky to be alive right now, to be honest. We really escaped one. We got away with one last night.’'
The weather was horrible across the Midwest Sunday, and the storms made the Browns prepare to bus home if need be. But after consulting with United Airlines, they were cleared to give it a shot though all commercial flights were grounded a few minutes before the Browns landed.
“I’m sure the conditions were stressful for our pilots, who did a phenomenal job,’' team spokesman Zak Gilbert said. “It’s important to note that neither our team nor United Airlines would’ve given us clearance to depart if our safety was in jeopardy. The airport also gave us clearance to land.”
That didn’t keep players from being terrified.
“There were a bunch of screams,” Pinkston said. “You could hear everyone screaming on the plane. It was pretty real. I screamed, because I was sitting right over [left] wing. My window was open and I saw the whole thing.”
Others might not have had the same reaction, but Pinkston’s pretty much guaranteed an aisle seat, and perhaps the B.A. Baracus treatment on future flights.