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Browns' Crennel: 'I'm not a quitter'
Cleveland coach rejects the notion that his players have given up on season at 3-6.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
BEREA — If he's going down, Romeo Crennel is going down fighting.
Stung and personally insulted by running back Jamal Lewis' claim that some unnamed Browns quit in the fourth quarter of last week's loss to Denver, Cleveland's embattled coach disputed Lewis' belief, defended his leadership skills and said he's certain his team has not yet given up on him or a season spiraling away.
"When you say that the team quit, that's saying that I quit," Crennel said. "I know that I'm not a quitter and my players don't quit."
After the Broncos scored 21 points in the fourth quarter and beat the Browns 34-30 last Thursday — just four days following a similar collapse in a home loss to Baltimore — a frustrated Lewis vented by saying some Browns quit and others needed to check their egos. Lewis' comments were then supported on Monday, Nov. 10, by return specialist Joshua Cribbs, who said the team needed to "weed out those guys and play the rest of the season out."
Crennel, who is 23-34 in three-plus seasons in Cleveland, rejected those contentions.
"It seems like the word 'quit' has taken a life of its own and grown a little bit bigger, and now the Browns are quitters and the coach has lost control of the team and there's division in the locker room, and that's not the case," Crennel said.
Crennel spoke to Lewis and Cribbs about their comments. He said the players do not feel their teammates quit, and although they did not apologize, both wish they had handled the situation differently.
Lewis refused to get into any specifics about his post-game rant, which came after the Browns (3-6) dropped to 1-4 at home and severely damaged any chances of making the AFC playoffs.
"I've still got a lot of confidence in this whole team that we can get it done," he said. "It's just, everybody needs to come answer the bell, and that's it. Everybody needs to step up to the plate and know where we're at and know what needs to be done. The talent is in this room. It needs to be put out there. It needs to be laid out on the field."
