Cleveland general manager Phil Savage apparently used profanity in an e-mail responding to a badgering Bills fan following the Browns’ 29-27 win in Buffalo on Monday night.

The exchange was first reported on the Website deadspin.com.

“I heard something about it this morning,” said coach Romeo Crennel. “We all get frustrated at times. Phil, generally, like the rest of us tries to be professional and hold it in, but sometimes some things slip out. It’s unfortunate that it slipped out.

“But (during) tough times, tough things happen. I’m sure if we had to do it over again, we’d do it a little bit differently. I talked to him this morning and said we just have to hang in there, keep fighting and try to get this thing turned.”

The email exchange occurred during the Browns’ 29-27 win in Orchard Park, N.Y., on Monday night.
The fan, who appeared on WKNR radio on the Tony Rizzo Show without identifying his real name, said he had been badgering Savage during the course of the evening.

Savage’s last response was: “Go root for Buffalo. F*&# you.”

I’m all for being professional, but I don’t have a problem with what Savage wrote. If the Bills fan wants to be an a-hole, than Savage has every right to drop an F-bomb in his lap. That said, he still shouldn’t have written it and I’m sure after he hit the send button he thought to himself, “Ah, sh*t – I shouldn’t have f’n said that.”

Considering Roger Goodell suspended Dallas QB coach Wade Wilson for five games and fined him $100,000 for purchasing an using performance-enhancing drugs last year, Savage can probably expect a call from the league office soon.

The Browns suspended tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. for one-game following his verbal bashing of GM Phil Savage and head coach Romeo Crennel in the wake of what he felt was the team’s mishandling of a staph infection. And as Patrick McManamon of the Akron Beacon Journal writes, this could be the beginning of the end for Winslow in Cleveland.

This comes from nothing anyone said privately or publicly, but from the occurrences of the past few days and from the statement released by General Manager Phil Savage that was so cold it had icicles dripping from it.

This clearly is one angry GM.

Savage has always been restrained with announcements and news. That he was blunt and direct in the statement about Winslow speaks volumes.

Savage called Winslow’s comments ”unwarranted, inappropriate, and unnecessarily disparaging to our organization.” He said the comments ”brought unjustified negative attention to our organization, and violated the team-first concept of our football squad.”

…But Winslow undercut Crennel twice — first after the game on Sunday, then Monday morning when he had more to say after meeting with Crennel on the team plane Sunday night.

Winslow cares about the team. But he also believes that he is better than most anyone and that is why he expects the ball.

This time, though, he put himself ahead of the team. After a tough loss, he made it about himself. If his coach is not on board with the suspension — and does anyone expect Crennel to say anything today except ”we’ve moved on”? — Winslow need only realize he is the one who put his coach in this position.

McManamon goes on to note that the Browns were in no hurry to re-do Winslow’s contract this offseason and they even went as far to draft a tight end (Martin Rucker) in this year’s draft.

If the Browns do part was with Winslow, it would be another first rounder from the 2004 draft that a team has sent packing. The Lions recently traded WR Roy Williams to the Cowboys and released RB Kevin Jones, the Falcons dealt CB DeAngelo Hall to the Raiders this offseason and the Jets sent LB Jonathan Vilma to the Saints before the start o of the year. Interesting.