Freddie Kitchens: Bob Wylie wasn’t under contract, now trying to make himself relevant

[Chomps]

Freddie Kitchens apparently wasn’t happy with the job Bob Wylie did with the Browns offensive line. Otherwise, Kitchens would have renewed Wylie’s contract to continue as an assistant coach on his staff after Kitchens got the head coaching job.

Now, Kitchens isn’t happy with Wylie for other reasons.

“It’s about the players. When do they get the credit?” Kitchens said, via Keith Britton of 92.3 The Fan. “Bob doesn’t wear brown and orange anymore. I had the opportunity to hire Bob. I didn’t want to. I went to the hospital to see Bob every week. At what point does Bob realize it was the players. . . .”

Kitchens vented Monday, two days after Wylie questioned the Browns’ decision to keep Kitchens as the head coach over Gregg Williams. Wylie told Zach Gelb of CBS Sports Radio that the offensive staff did the heavy lifting for Kitchens last season and became “collateral damage” once Kitchens got the job.

Wylie said he heard the Browns were letting him go from his daughter while he was in the hospital for 122 days rehabbing from major ankle and knee surgery.

None of Wylie’s criticism sat well with Kitchens.

“Well, I would say this, I know Bob Wylie to be a good person and out of respect to his family, I won’t get into any of that because he’s a father; he’s a husband; he’s a granddad,” Kitchens said, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “But I would just say this about that whole situation. Bob knows what happened. Bob knows what was going on, and when he was here, he knew everything about it, you know?

“Listen Bob wasn’t under contract. He forgot to tell everybody that. He wasn’t under contract. He had talked about retiring forever, all right? So, sometimes when a person says something, they have to be made to feel relevant, OK? Bob’s a good person, and I don’t want to lose sight of that. I have too much respect for him as a person.”

Kitchens said the timing of Wylie’s interview took away from the team’s scrimmage Saturday, which drew more than 37,000 fans.

“What I would say though is, what got lost in the shuffle is what really mattered and what we’re doing right now,” Kitchens said. “And for whatever reason it got lost in the shuffle. We just had 40,000 people at a stadium for a practice, all right? Where all the proceeds went to the [Get2School] initiative that the Browns have done, so that got lost in the shuffle of all this stuff that happened last year.”