Antonio Cromartie offers below-the-belt retort to Kellen Winslow’s criticism
It doesn’t appear that Kellen Winslow will be invited to New York Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie’s house anytime soon.
Winslow, a former NFL tight end known perhaps best known for his off-the-field issues, inexplicably took to Twitter on Wednesday to tell former teammate Antonio Cromartie to stop his burgeoning feud with Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman.
Winslow’s tweet didn’t even include Cromartie’s Twitter handle and yet the New York Jets cornerback took time out to respond to Winslow, who he played with in New York during the 2013 season. What happened was a low-blow that only underscores how stupid this whole thing really is.
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Pulling no punches, Cromartie fired a salvo at Winslow, putting down his teammate’s playing resume when stacked up against his father, a Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end. He then mentioned Target, an obvious reference to Winslow’s arrest in the superstore’s parking lot two years that included the police finding him in his parked car with synthetic marijuana and his pants down, and a woman accused him of pleasuring himself. When it happened, Winslow denied any wrongdoing through his publicist.
Yikes. Keeping it classy.
It hasn’t been a good week for Cromartie in general. At the start of minicamp on Tuesday, he grabbed the microphone of local sports station SNY and asked teammate Dee Milliner a couple questions. This offseason, the Jets signed Cromartie as well as cornerbacks Darrelle Revis and Buster Skrine, moves that likely relegate Milliner to a depth role at cornerback. Cromartie, with the cameras rolling and the media gathered around, asked the former first-round pick about being on the roster bubble.
It’s clearly out of line to put your teammate on the spot like that in a media setting. To his credit, Milliner responded well to his teammate throwing him under the bus.
Then there was Sherman, who perhaps won the war of the words with Cromartie on Tuesday.
Cromartie, a well-respected cornerback but certainly not elite at the position, discredited Sherman’s resume this offseason and said that he was a product of the Seahawks scheme. Sherman fired back on Tuesday and took a relatively high road, calling Cromartie’s remarks “unfortunate.”
Then he hit hard when he pointed out that Cromartie’s Pro Bowl appearance last year was as an alternate and only because Sherman was in the Super Bowl.
“I think it’s one of the things that’s just the ignorance of the public. How many great left tackles do you see switching to the right side because there’s a great d-end (switching) to the right side? You don’t see it,” Sherman said, according to the Associated Press. “Great players stay on their side and do what they’re supposed to do. How many guys have you seen switching from side to side on a No. 1 defense? We’re the No. 1 defense for a reason.”
It was criticism that was right on target, so to speak.
The irony is that you’d expect banter like Cromartie’s from a Rex Ryan-coached team. But Ryan was fired this offseason in large part because he ran such a loose locker room with the Jets. In his place comes Todd Bowles, a disciplinarian who apparently has his work cut out for him.
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Kristian R. Dyer writes for Metro New York and is a contributor to Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KristianRDyer
