Antonio Callaway’s 4-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy is taking the Cleveland Browns down a familiar road. This time, they need to take a different path.
Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens said he was looking forward to having the team confront adversity. Be careful what you wish for. On August 9, the NFL gave wide receiver Antonio Callaway a 4-game suspension for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy. This was after Callaway reportedly showed up to camp out of shape and was running with the 2’s and 3’s.
On the surface, there are many people who will look at this as an injustice to Callaway. It’s only weed after all, which is becoming legal — for medicinal if not recreational purposes — in more and more states. But this isn’t “just about weed”. It’s about a culture that Freddie Kitchens, if not John Dorsey, is trying to build. A culture that says “if you don’t wear brown and orange, you don’t matter”.
Well, in a literal sense, Callaway won’t be wearing brown and orange for the first four games of the season. And the nature of addiction is such that he, like other addicts, is willing to jeopardize a bright future for a fleeting present.
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Yet, there are those that will say — he should matter. Why? Because he can run like a gazelle? We saw someone on Thursday night who can run faster. Because he can take the top off the defense? Not if he’s not on the field.
The Cleveland Browns showed something on Thursday night that we saw glimmers of at the end of last season. A team that was having fun playing together and supporting each other. Chemistry is a fragile thing. But this culture change shouldn’t be a surprise.
This training camp is seeing the players practicing in pads more than they have in years. A coaching staff that’s holding players accountable. Some would say that toughness and accountability are antiquated notions that don’t have a place in our society.
Tell that to anyone who has played a team sport at any significant level. Tell that to anyone who has faced some form of adversity in their life.
Accountability means that you can count on the player next to you doing their assignment. They may screw up, but they will show up and put the team and its goals ahead of everything else.
Callaway’s behavior, whether he can control it or not, is a frontal assault on the Browns changing culture. It is the definition of the adversity that Kitchens says he wants, and a test of how ready he is to be a head coach in this league. This is not about skipping voluntary practices to work out on your own. This is not about shotgunning a beer. This is about having a team that took a chance on a player because they believed in his talent and the player being unable, or unwilling, to return that loyalty.
There are those that will say if you get rid of a player who has a substance abuse problem, you don’t understand the nature of addiction.
I argue a different point.
If you don’t release a player who has shown an inability to overcome their substance abuse problem despite receiving support and a second — or third — chance, you don’t understand the nature of addiction.
Let me make my personal position clear. I don’t believe the Cleveland Browns should release, or seek to trade Callaway…yet. But, for me, this would be his one and only chance. In fact, he may have already received a mulligan depending on what side of the fence you were on with his “it wasn’t my weed” defense last August. There are other wide receivers on this team who appear to have a “get it” factor that Callaway seems to lack.
I wish Antonio Callaway all the best. I hope that his best will allow him to stay in a Cleveland Browns uniform. I won’t be upset with the front office if they decide otherwise.