Eric Winston stands by remarks

After Sunday's loss to the Ravens, Chiefs offensive tackle Eric Winston unloaded on those fans at Arrowhead Stadium who cheered when quarterback Matt Cassel was down on the turf with a concussion.

"Boo him all you want; boo me all you want," Winston said Sunday via CBSSports.com's C.J. Moore. "Throw me under the bus. Tell me I'm doing a bad job. Say I got to protect him more. But if you're one of those people that were out there cheering or even smiled when he got knocked out, I just want to let you know and I want everybody to know that I think it's sickening and disgusting."

A day later, Winston stood by the criticism that he leveled at those fans cheering Cassel's injury.

“I meant what I said. I didn't say it off the cuff,” Winston said, via the the Kansas City Star's Adam Teicher (by way of PFT). “I look back on it, and I'm happy with what I said.”

Not everybody felt that way. Former Chiefs offensive lineman Rich Baldinger thinks Winston needs to apologize to the people of Kansas City.
"Needless to say, you cannot, after a game in a highly emotional situation, take your rant that way," Baldinger said. "It came off wrong. You embarrassed a lot of great people in the city of Kansas City that have been so supportive of this team. You go to any other city, and it's worse. These fans have been here through thick and thin.

"I was here in the '80s. It was bad, it got good and these fans have stayed here forever. Eric Winston, I think you owe these fans an apology because you cannot lump together everyone with a few you-know-what's out there -- a few jerks that might've had maybe one too many in the stands. So let's not put all these Kansas City fans together … Sometimes it's better to stop, take a breath, think about think about what you [say] before you say it."

Then the discussion promptly turned to Philly fans because, well, they always seem to come up whenever the topic is unruly crowd behavior. Incidentally, Baldinger's brother, Brian, serves as the Eagles' color commentator during preseason games.

Winston, meanwhile, offered this clarification on Monday: “I didn't mean all 70,000 [fans] were cheering. It might have been 7,000. It might have been 700. It's still too many.”


(cbssports.com)