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One-time Tampa Bay Buccaneers star Kellen Winslow II will spend 14 years in prison and the rest of his life as a registered sex offender after a California judge sentenced him over convictions of rape and sexual offenses on Wednesday.
Winslow’s convictions included “forceable rape, rape of an unconscious person, assault with intent to commit rape, indecent exposure, and lewd conduct in public” according to FOX News. He committed the crimes against five women in Southern California during the past 18 years per NBC San Diego’s Christina Bravo.
One of the women was homeless when assaulted in 2018 according to the New York Times’ Neil Vigdor. Two of Winslow’s crimes involved women ages 54, 57, and 77. Another crime involved a 17-year-old in 2003 when Winslow was 19, but the jurors didn’t reach an agreement on the charges for that incident according to the Associated Press via ESPN.com.
“The vulnerability of the victims was no accident. It was the type of victim that you sought out yourself because you felt that perhaps they wouldn’t report the crime” or “wouldn’t be deemed credible by the jurors,” San Diego County Superior Court Judge Blaine Bowman said according to Fox News.
The sentencing took place over video due to COVID-19 per FOX News.
The former Bucs tight end played in Tampa from 2009 to 2011 amid his nine-year NFL career. Winslow, 37, is the son of Hall of Fame tight end Kellen Winslow Jr., who played for the then-San Diego Chargers in the 1980s.
Before Wednesday’s sentencing, Winslow agreed to the plea deal in February, “admitting to assault with intent to commit rape” per Bravo.
Bucs Career
Winslow came to Tampa via a trade with the Cleveland Browns in 2009.
The Browns drafted him with the No. 6 pick in the 2004 draft out of Miami. He caught 219 passes for 2,459 yards and 11 touchdowns in four seasons in Cleveland.
The Bucs gave Winslow largest tight end contract in NFL history at the time per ESPN’s John Clayton. The Bucs gave him a six-year, $36.1 million contract after trading away a second-round and fifth-round draft pick for the star tight end.
Winslow stepped up for Tampa with 77 catches for 884 yards and five touchdowns in 2009. He shined again in 2010 with 66 receptions for 730 yards and five touchdowns, and he kept going strong in 2011 with 75 receptions for 763 yards but only had two touchdowns.
The Bucs traded him to Seattle in 2012 where his career took a tumble. The Seahawks released him before the season, but the New England Patriots gave him a chance. Winslow played one game with Tom Brady, catching a pass for 12 yards, before the Patriots released him.
Winslow played one more season with the New York Jets in 2013 where he caught 31 passes for 388 yards and two touchdowns.
First Time in Florida
Winslow, a San Diego, California, native, first arrived in Florida through college where he played for Miami from 2001 to 2003.
He won a national title in 2001 with the Hurricanes as a true freshman, playing mostly special teams per Miami athletics. He set single-season records in receptions, 57, and yards, 726, and touchdowns, eight, in 2002 and finished with 59 career receptions, 760 yards, and eight touchdowns.
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