After two years of pain and frustration, catching footballs is coming naturally to Kellen Winslow Jr. again. For a while it seemed it would never happen.
In August 2005, Winslow sat in front of his locker at the Browns training complex in the Cleveland suburb of Berea talking about his latest setback.
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| Kellen Winslow says he's about 90 percent recovered. (AP) |
Instead, Winslow was talking about a staph infection he theorized invaded his body when he rubbed ointment over the scar on his knee from surgery the previous June.
The infection left him pale and thin. He lost 30 pounds. The sculpted muscle definition wasted away. Winslow, determined to make a comeback after the accident, began working out the day after his knee surgery. The infection flattened him six weeks later, and he could do nothing until it cleared. He walked around with a catheter in his heart, pumping medicine through his body.
Ten months later, at the Browns' minicamp this past weekend, Winslow looked the same as he did his rookie training camp before the string of injuries. His thighs are thick again and his biceps bulge. They are the result -- and he says this is no exaggeration -- of eight hours a day in the weight room.
Winslow was not perfect in the minicamp. He dropped some passes he normally would have caught easily. But for the most part, he outran defenders and outjumped them for the football.
At one point he caught a pass from quarterback Charlie Frye at the 10-yard line and dashed across the goal line. Players are in shorts and T-shirts, and there is no contact in minicamp, but still it was a defining moment for Winslow in his first full-team practice in 21 months.
His teammates, who respect him so much for the way he fought back from the injuries and the staph infection, cheered from the sideline. One player yelled "Dunk it, Kellen!" Winslow jumped and slammed the ball over the crossbar.
"I'm about 90 percent," Winslow said after the practice. "I've been waiting for this day for a long time. It felt great to be out here with everybody.
"Emotionally, it was very difficult. There were a lot of long nights. It was hard to see my teammates playing in games while I'm at home with my leg up. God put me in this place for a reason. Maybe it wasn't my time yet, but now it is my time. I feel like it is. It gave me a lot of time to think about myself and spend time with my family."
Ben Roethlisberger's recent motorcycle crash brought back to Winslow a rush of memories of his own accident in a vacant parking lot while doing wheelies and other tricks. For the first time since his crash, Winslow stated flatly he will never get on a motorcycle again.
"No, I won't," he said.
