Report: Teammates avoided Kellen Winslow Jr. because of porn obsession and lewd behavior
After months in and out of courtrooms, Kellen Winslow II was convicted of rape, indecent exposure and lewd conduct for three different incidents on Monday. The ex-NFL star likely still has more court dates to come after a jury deadlocked on eight other charges, but it’s clear that Winslow will be going to prison.
Before all of that happened, before five different women recounted how Winslow allegedly raped them or exposed himself to them, Winslow was asked by a news station if he had anything to say.
“It’s a money grab, and unfortunately that’s the society we live in now,” Winslow said.
“I’m innocent,” he added. “To the people who know me out there, who know what type of person I am, know my character, my NFL friends and family, just my regular friends and family … they know who I am. And I’m an innocent guy. I’m an innocent man.”
The first sentence there doesn’t ring true these days given that none of Winslow’s accusers have been reported to be filing a civil suit. The second sentence, as well as the fourth and fifth, have been ruled decidedly false by the legal system.
As for the third sentence, how his NFL friends and family know what type of person he is, that might actually be true. Just not in the way Winslow likely intended.
Warning, the following article contains numerous graphic stories of sexual misconduct.
Here’s why Kellen Winslow Jr.’s teammates avoided him
In an extensive breakdown of Winslow’s history of rape and sexual misconduct allegations, Sports Illustrated reports that Winslow had a habit of watching porn and masturbating at team facilities, and at team hotels and on team planes. And he reportedly didn’t care if any of his teammates were nearby.
Via Sports Illustrated’s Robert Klemko:
From his early years in Cleveland (2004-08), to his final NFL season in 2013 with the Jets, Winslow became known to co-workers as a compulsive masturbator and pornography enthusiast, according to two teammates and three former team officials. He could count on having an empty seat next to him on any team flight, due to his ritual of watching hardcore pornography on his portable DVD player, according to those sources. On one occasion, an equipment manager tasked with delivering gear to lockers after-hours walked in on Winslow masturbating at his locker, two seats away from the entrance, according to two team officials familiar with the incident.
There are also tales of some very awkward team meetings thanks to the advent of smartphones:
During road games when the team stayed at a hotel and had a curfew, assistant coaches who performed bed checks reported on multiple occasions finding Winslow watching pornography. When pornography became widely available on mobile phones, he often watched it on his smartphone during meetings, the two former teammates said (nowadays, such sites would typically be blocked by the building WiFi). Teammates begged out of shared hotel room assignments with Winslow because he watched pornography and masturbated openly, with no regard for who was in the room, a teammate and an official said.
The report mentions other stories of Winslow’s obsession with porn, like that time Winslow’s father, NFL Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow Sr., visited a Cleveland Browns facility to record a father-son video spot. The younger Winslow reportedly went missing as the shoot was set to begin, and a source told SI that Winslow Jr. was later found masturbating in a guest parking lot.
Winslow reportedly bragged about cheating on his wife with frequent one-night stands on road trips and was also described by a team official as focused on two things: “video games and f---ing.”
Romeo Crennel, who coached the Browns during Winslow’s tenure in Cleveland, and an assistant reportedly attempted to mentor Winslow and convince him to stop masturbating in front of teammates, but apparently he didn’t take that advice.
Winslow’s reported behavior when he joined his second team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers:
Later on in his career, after being sent to Tampa Bay via trade, Winslow acquired a life-sized silicone mold of a woman’s torso ... to bring with him on road trips, according to one former assistant coach.
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