There used to be a segment on a Cleveland FM radio station years ago called “Knuckleheads in the News.”

It was real stories of people doing stupid things, many times running afoul of the law to do so. It was hilarious and, often times, very sad.

We introduce you to the latest example of that show. His name is Lonnie Phelps, and he used to be a first–year defensive event for the Browns before they cut him for driving his car into a restaurant in Florida and being arrested for drunken driving, among other things.

How in the world do you do that?

He is the first example for the Browns this season of what I wrote about recently concerning all NFL coaches, including Cleveland’s Kevin Stefanski, holding their breath during this vacation time in the NFL season that some of these young young players don’t get into trouble. The NFL graveyard is littered with guys like Phelps. Thankfully, he wasn’t killed, and no one else was, either.

I hope he had a good time, because, at least right now,,he threw away a possible pro football career.

The silver lining to all this is perhaps it will send a message to all the players in this time between the end of the mini camps and the start of training camp that they have to behave themselves.

Chris Palmer, the first head coach of the expansion Browns, gave a great response when I asked him one time about character and integrity. He said, in essence, that the chance of any young player entering the league to actually make the final roster is overall not very good. So, then, he he said he couldn’t take that chance and whittle it down to almost nothing by bringing in a player who he knew already had some behavior issues.

“I can’t put him out on the field in the fourth quarter of a tight game at Pittsburgh if I am not certain that, instead of carousing laround and doing a bunch of dumb stuff, he was home going over the playbook, getting his rest and treating his family members well.

What a knucklehead in the news!

Steve King