Larry Brown Sports

The Kansas City Chiefs and Cleveland Browns will play on Sunday, and Peyton Hillis and Joe Thomas are treating us to a nice appetizer before the game.

On Wednesday, Thomas, a Pro Bowl left tackle for Cleveland, was critical of the way Hillis behaved last season as a member of the Browns.

“It was a terrible distraction,” Thomas said of Hillis’ attitude last season. “He crippled our offense. We were struggling to find anybody who could carry the ball after all the injuries we had. To have Peyton going through a contract dispute and basically refusing to play, it was a big distraction. But more than anything, he was our starting running back that was a good player who was going to help us be a successful offense.

“When he’s not there and you don’t have anybody to turn to, it makes it hard to win. And that’s the distraction, it’s not being successful.”

Hillis was such a distraction his behavior led his Browns teammates to reportedly hold an intervention last year.

On Thursday, Hillis, now with Kansas City, responded to Thomas’ comments.

“Joe Thomas, he can have his opinions all he wants,” Hillis said via the Associated Press. “It’s kind of like a crazy ex-girlfriend, you know? It’s been over a year. Get over it. But I don’t know. I guess when you get paid over $100 million by one team, it’s kind of easy to point the finger at another guy and hate on him for trying to get another contract.”

Hillis said he’s just trying to move on and that he doesn’t have regrets.

Thomas said Hillis created a “toxic” environment last season. He described Hillis as being a great teammate when he became a breakout star in 2010, but the exact opposite last year.

Hillis likely has learned his lesson, but it’s really sad it took all that for him to realize his mistakes. He also shouldn’t have called Thomas a name for pointing out the truth. He should have just admitted he was wrong.

Peyton Hillis had a rough time in Cleveland last year. Coming off a dominant season in 2010, his 2011 season was plagued by injuries and frustration over a lack of contract discussions. At one point it looked like Hillis would be traded, but nothing ever came to fruition. Some are wondering if the Browns will franchise tag Hillis to keep him for another season, but ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting that they will not. In fact, Hillis has recently contemplated retiring and pursuing an interesting career.

Throughout the past season, Hillis has wavered about whether he wants to continue playing football, and even considered joining the CIA, according to team sources.

It is unclear if he actually pursued a career with the CIA.

Hillis told Browns coaches as recently as the end of the season that he was contemplating retirement, though it now looks as if he will continue playing, the sources said.

I could see Hillis wanting to quit football and become a police officer or something, but doesn’t working with the CIA require extensive training and — you know — experience? At least Tiger Woods was reportedly training to join the Navy SEALs, although that sounds pretty far-fetched as well. Did Hillis think he was just going to retire from football and apply online? I guess I shouldn’t be telling a man how to dream.

H/T Shutdown Corner

2011 has been a disastrous season for Peyton Hillis. The Browns running back was slowed by a hamstring injury that caused him to miss five games. He sat out a game at his agent’s urging because he was ill. It was that type of poor attitude that led to an intervention with his teammates.

After having such an awful season, Hillis admitted Thursday that the infamous Madden Curse is real.

“No doubt about it,” Hillis said. “Things haven’t worked to my favor this year. There’s a few things that happened that made me believe in curses. Ain’t no doubt about it.”

Hillis has finally come back and has put together back-to-back weeks of solid production. Now that his free agent value is destroyed, he’s trying to rebuild his image as the fan favorite that helped him land the cover of the Madden Football video game. I say it’s too little too late.

Hillis is clearly influenced by his agent too easily and allowed his personal issues to turn him into a bad teammate. He never was really that great of a player to begin with. Hillis overplayed his hand and is now paying for it. The good news is that he’s finally been humbled again, allowing him to play his best.

In the course of a single season, Peyton Hillis has gone from everyone’s favorite underdog to Cleveland malcontent.  Some of Hillis’ frustrations stem from his hamstring injury, which has lingered and seems to flare up every time he tries to play.  In all likelihood, the most significant contributor to his discontent is the lack of a contract extension, which Hillis believes he deserves after a monster season with the Browns a year ago.  On Friday, it became clear that Hillis’ lack of focus has taken a toll on his teammates.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” an unnamed Browns player told Yahoo! Sports. “Last year, Peyton was such a positive, inspirational force on our team – but now he’s like a different guy. It’s like he’s in a funk that he can’t get out of, and it’s killing us, because we really need him. And we’ve told him that. But we’re at the point where we just don’t know what to do.”

The player told Michael Silver that eight of the team’s veterans organized an intervention-style meeting with Hillis to address his attitude issues.  Apparently the final straw came when Hillis and backup quarterback Thaddeus Lewis were holding a contest to see who could hit the crossbar the most times before a loss in San Francisco.

“A few guys tried to talk to him, to make him understand the best way to go about things is to put your head down and do the best you possibly can,” tackle Joe Thomas said.

Silver said the Browns locker room has grown weary of Peyton’s attitude.  The intervention reportedly had a positive outcome, but between this and Hillis missing a recent charity appearance in Cleveland it’s obvious he hasn’t been himself.  Whether it’s the injury or contract that has him frustrated and not giving 100 percent, it seems as though Hillis is wearing out his welcome with the Browns fairly quickly.

via Pro Football Talk

While there has been little detail revealed about the situation between Peyton Hillis and the Cleveland Browns, it’s pretty obvious the relationship is not a pleasant one.  Hillis had a monster year for the Browns in 2010, but the team clearly does not value him enough to offer him a lucrative extension.  It would also stand to reason that not many teams in the league believe Hillis has a bright future, or Cleveland likely would have been enticed by a trade offer around the deadline.

Regardless of how many games Hillis misses with strep throat or how unhappy he is with not getting paid, there’s no excuse to bail on charity events.  According to The Plain Dealer, former Browns lineman LeCharles Bentley arranged for Hillis to appear at a Halloween event for the Cleveland Boys and Girls Club on Monday night.  A press release was sent out on Friday to promote the appearance, but Hillis apparently never ended up showing.

Unless Hillis has a legitimate excuse for standing up 40 excited children, that’s pretty low.  As you might expect, Bentley was unhappy with Hillis and tweeted the following on Monday night: “Peyton Hillis looking for 10mil guaranteed from Browns and can’t show up to kids charity event? #ManPlease.”

Peyton was once America’s favorite white running back and even won the fan vote to appear on the cover of Madden NFL 12.  He was already losing fans by milking injuries this season and stamping his feet about a contract extension, so I can only imagine his fan base will shrink even further when people find out he stood up the Boys and Girls Club.

ESPN announced Wednesday that Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis beat Michael Vick to win the cover of the Madden NFL 12 video game. Even though we covered Hillis’ run to the semis, we didn’t see him emerging from the pack.

Maybe we should have.

It probably didn’t hurt Hillis that Packers fans voted against Aaron Rodgers because they didn’t want him to suffer the curse. But how did Hillis defeat the ever popular Michael Vick? There is only one possible answer: he ran with the white running back mystique.

Cleveland Browns fans are numerous and passionate, but they can’t possibly overpower every other fan base in the NFL. And I don’t believe some sort of Rory Fitzpatrick scheme was at work either. This was about one thing — race. America loves white running backs and this is confirmation. Here’s more on the matter if you’re interested.

Unlike past years when the cover of the popular John Madden football video game was selected by EA Sports, this year they chose to have the cover determined by a vote. Sports Nation has hosted a 32-player March Madness-style tournament (one athlete per team) to determine who will end up on the cover of the game. They’re down to the semifinals and the four remaining players are Aaron Rodgers, Michael Vick, Adrian Peterson, and Peyton Hillis. Ask yourself one question: which athlete does not belong?

In that group, we have a Super Bowl MVP, the MVP runner up, a four-time Pro Bowler, and a guy who has 1,574 career yards and 17 touchdowns. The guy with the fewest accolades out of that group is by far Peyton Hillis.

Don’t get me wrong, Peyton Hillis was pretty outstanding last year until getting hurt, but he really doesn’t belong with those three just yet. Those other three guys are stars in the game while Hillis has had one good year. And his one good year wasn’t even as good as say, Arian Foster’s one good year. So how did he end up in the semifinals of this tournament?

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