Published August 15, 2008 01:03 am - BEREA — The pads were on. The gloves were off.
Browns Notebook: Browns put up their dukes
STEVE DOERSCHUK Canton Repository
BEREA — The pads were on. The gloves were off.
Late in Thursday’s sun-baked practice, sparks flew after 27-year-old tight end Brad Cieslak rammed into rookie linebacker Alex Hall, who will celebrate his 23rd birthday this week, presumably still on the team.
Cieslak, a former star high school quarterback who became a Northern Illinois tight end and stuck around with the Bills at the latter position for most of three years, seemed content with the shoving as coach Romeo Crennel closed in.
Crennel, who blows four sharp toots on a whistle at the end of each 11-on-11 play, had whistled this one dead. When Crennel saw Hall load up a punch for Cieslak, he grabbed the rookie by the front of the jersey and gave him a fierce look.
That ended the fracas.
Later, Crennel said the last time he broke up a camp fight was when he was a Belichick lieutenant in New England.
“I almost got hit,” Crennel said with a grin. “Then I decided it’s not the place for me.
“I can get in between a young rookie. He’s probably not gonna hit the coach.”
Hall is a late bloomer who weighed 190 pounds coming out of high school and played college football at St. Augustine.
Now, he is a 6-foot-5, 250-pound physical specimen who could help as a pass rusher. The Browns got him in the seventh round of this year’s draft.
Despite the fight, Hall isn’t going anywhere, unless it’s the practice squad rather than the regular roster.
Kamerion Wimbley calls him “a great young individual.”
Chances are, Crennel put this one to bed by giving it the old Lou Brown:
“Good, I like that kind of spirit in a player.”
With players in pads and doing some hitting, spirits ran high Thursday.
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