CAN CALLOWAY AND HUNT FIND STRENGTH IN EACH OTHER’S ISSUES?
By STEVE KING
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His team had done very little wrong in walloping the Washington Redskins 30-10 at FirstEnergy Stadium in its preseason opener less than 24 hours before, but that wasn’t what dominated head coach Freddie Kitchens’ Friday press conference.
Rather, it was the announcement by the NFL that it had suspended wide receiver Antonio Calloway for the first four games of the regular season for violating its substance abuse policy. Indeed, the first 13 questions, and 14 overall, that were asked by the Cleveland media following practice involved Calloway.
That’s how much the troubled Calloway’s indiscretions are swallowing up the club and becoming a pain in the neck for Kitchens.
Yikes!
And it will only get worse before it gets better, if indeed it ever does get better.
That’s a shame. That’s a crying shame – it’s so unfortunate – for everybody involved.
But here’s the bright spot: Calloway is on the same team with Kareem Hunt, who has been suspended by the NFL for the first 10 games of the season for physically abusing a woman.
So, then, in a weird, unfortunate kind of way, Calloway has in Hunt an example of what happens when a player can’t control his demons. And in Calloway, Hunt has the same kind of example.
Both players have a chance to have key roles for the Browns going forward. They are that good. But they can’t do it if they continue to fail to behave themselves.
When it’s all said and done, how much of a storyline will the behavior – or the lack thereof – of both players have been this season? Who knows? But how sad it will be if it turns out to be a major storyline?
The expectation – or at least the great hope – is that both men are strong enough, and have the necessary support systems around them, to get themselves and their lives straightened out. However, there is no guarantee of that. A lot of NFL players down through the years should have been able to get it right, and didn’t for whatever reason.
But perhaps in this case, Calloway and Hunt can do it by finding strength in each other’s struggles.
