Freddie Kitchens Rips Bob Wylie Following Criticism

Getty Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens.

Freddie Kitchens know the truth, but the first-year Cleveland Browns skipper doesn’t need his name shouted from the rooftops.

Former Browns offensive line coach Bob Wylie criticized Kitchens this week on a radio show, saying that he was surprised Kitchens got the head coaching gig considering he wasn’t responsible for the Browns turnaround after Hue Jackson got fired, going 5-3 in those games.

Wylie instead credited interim head coach Gregg Williams and former QB coach Kenny Zampese. Kitchens served as the offensive coordinator during the stretch and called the plays.

“Baker (Mayfield) likes Freddie,’’ Wylie said on the The Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. “There’s a good relationship there even though (former Browns QB coach) Kenny Zampese did all the coaching there. Baker likes Freddie, so that had to (factor) into the decision.

“That shocked me because Gregg Williams turned the team around. In the second half of the season, that’s his work that got it to where it is. My own personal feeling is Gregg was too strong a candidate for the seat,’’ Wylie said. “I don’t think Dorsey wanted to go head-to-head with Gregg like he had to do with Andy Reid in Kansas City, so he kind of filtered Gregg out of the picture and he kept the search going.”


Freddie Kitchens Shows Restraint Responding to Bob Wylie

The Browns head coach responded to Wylies’ words in classic Kitchens fashion — cool, calm and collected. He knows that if they’re not wearing orange and brown, they don’t matter.

“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. 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, alright? So, sometimes when a person says something, they have to be made to feel relevant, okay? 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.”

He continued after being asked if the the comments angered him.

“At the end of the day, no, I don’t get angry. I know what happened. He knows what happened. The staff knows what happened,” Kitchens said. “Here’s the thing that gets lost in the shuffle with all that. It’s kind of a microcosm that we’re worried about, I’ve never wanted any appreciation. I’ve never asked for any tooting of my horn or anything like that, but we seem to ask for it. Well, what about the players? What did the players do? Did they have anything to do with the turnaround? Because I really, truly feel that this game is about the players. It’s not about me. It’s not about Bob. It’s not about the staff. Our job is to get them ready to play. It’s about them.”

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Freddie Kitchens Won’t Be Tolerating Leaks, Unnamed Sources

In somewhat of the same vein, Kitchens talked about what he’ll do if he starts seeing leaks in the media from various unnamed sources about what’s going on in the building.

He’s not a fan.

“The days of inside information and the days of unnamed sources and stuff like that have ended,” Kitchens said. “So you’re not going to get any information like that ever. Anybody. And if I ever see it, they’re fired — immediately. That’s the way we’re running this organization and I can take it. John Dorsey can take it. We won’t crack, I promise you.”

So far so good for Kitchens. The Browns kick off the preseason Thursday against the Washington Redskins.

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