SAVAGE STOKES THE WINSLOW FIRE

Browns G.M. Phil Savage addressed after Sunday’s win over the Jaguars the resolution of the team’s dispute with tight end Kellen Winslow. But Savage would have been wise to say nothing. After claiming that he had no knowledge before Saturday of damning text messages from a P.R. employee directing Winslow not to reveal publicly that he contracted a staph infection, Savage strongly hinted that there’s much more to the story. Asked if there’s a second illness, Savage committed (in our view) a huge blunder. “If there’s going to be disclosure,” Savage said, “there’s got to be full disclosure, so that was the situation we were in and we were trying to avoid that situation for he and his family. We were trying to do the right thing by him and his family. I’m not going to categorize it any other way other than he had an illness.” Savage then was asked why Winslow was initially hospitalized. Savage said, “I don’t know.” He then asked Browns spokesman Bill Bonsiewicz, “Bill, has it been disclosed or is it still a private matter?” Bonsiewicz shook his head, indicating that the information had not been disclosed. Said Savage, “I think it’s all in a gray area right now. I think the best thing to say is no. You can ask [Winslow].” But wait a second here. If Winslow merely developed a staph infection (he reportedly claims he got it from a car door), then there should be no gray area. So what Savage was doing (and he’s presumably smart enough to realize that he was doing it) is stoking the flames of the rumors of swollen testicles (as initially mentioned here -- my parents would be so proud) and STDs (initially mentioned elsewhere and only repeated here; we’ve got no reason to believe that he has ever had an STD, and we believe that the swelling, if those rumors are true, was merely a symptom of the staph infection). Bottom line? The Browns obviously think that this is something more than a simple staph infection, and Winslow obviously is going to be even more pissed off at the front office.