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March 3, 2012Last spring, Peyton Hillis was coming off the best year of his career and capturing the cover of the world’s most popular sports video game. This year looks to be a little less enjoyable, after a miserable season of off-the-field tumult and back-and-forth rumors and speculation in the media. That back-and-forth continued this week with the wild anecdote that Hillis thought about retiring from football and joining the CIA, according to a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter. That report cited not your average run-of-the-mill “sources,” but went a step further and put complete clarity on the matter by citing “team sources.”
On Friday night, Hillis fired back with the Plain Dealer’s Mary Kay Cabot relaying the message. The running back indicated that the story was “ridiculous” and that someone is trying to “downplay my name.” Taking a cue from Marlo Stanfield, Hillis aggressively defended himself, and also tried to explain the revolving door of agents he’s employed this past year.
“That’s ridiculous. I never one time mentioned anything to any coach about retirement or joining the CIA or anything like that. It’s 100 percent false. I don’t know who came up with a story like that, but they should’ve come up with a better one to make it sound more legit…Someone is trying to downplay my name. I really don’t cause a big ruckus…Whoever came up with the story should get their facts straight.”
It’s certainly an adamant defense, completely calling out the ESPN report as false and questioning the Browns sources who gave Schefter the information. Schefter fired off a tweet this morning reiterating that he had solid sources informing him.
Despite sources saying he did, Browns RB Peyton Hillis told the Cleveland Plain Dealer he did not consider joining the CIA.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 3, 2012
This is just another episode in the drama that has led many Browns fans to conclude that Hillis is not worth the trouble. Although it wasn’t the headline-grabbing part of the report, the thrust of Schefter’s article was that the Browns would not be using the franchise tag on Hillis, which will make him a free agent in ten days.
He will enter that free agency period with a brand new, yet-to-be-named agent working out the deal. That’s because Hillis fired his third agent this year, letting go of Kennard McGuire just this month as he was about to hit the open market this offseason. I’d imagine someone is advising him on how to respond to the CIA report this week, prompting this article – but you never know with Hillis. He told Cabot that McGuire was just not making progress with the Browns and he felt he had to let him go.
“My priority was to find an agent that could get a deal done with the Browns,” said Hillis. “I’ve said all along that this was where I wanted to be, and I wanted to work with someone who had a good relationship with the Browns. We kept Kennard all year, but things weren’t getting done between him and the Browns.”
Speaking with the hometown paper, Hillis professes his love for the Browns throughout the piece and reiterates that he wants to get a deal done with Cleveland. He even went so far as to tell Cabot he would take a hometown discount to stay with the Browns. Of course, he didn’t elaborate much on the specifics of what exactly the discount threshold would be.
16 Comments
Of course Hillis would deny wanting to join the CIA. That’s just what the CIA would want him to say!
Political correctness is tyranny with manners
I don’t know Brendan, “team sources” is still spotty and vague, especially in the midst of a negotiation.
And even if the report were true it still doesn’t sway me from wanting Hillis back. Everyone has hard times in their job, and it’s natural to ponder alternative career paths when you’ve hit a nadir (or several, as Hillis experienced last year). Just because you might verbalize your frustrations or fantasize about a more purposeful and fulfilling career for yourself in a moment of weakness it doesn’t mean you’re some sort of irrational lunatic.
I hope they sign Hillis and he bounces back w/ a big year. How sweet would it be to have him carrying the load deep into the playoffs in January wearing the brown jersey and doing the incredible hulk thing in the endzone? [Insert Homer Simpson drool noise]
Much ado about squat.
This certainly is no reason to let Hillis go. This isn’t trouble, it’s amusement. Hillis isn’t causing real trouble like cancerous DeSean Jackson, Santonio Holmes, and other serious diva malcontents who quit on their teams in a snit because nobody’s kissing their glutes enough.
This is harmless. Let’s get him signed.
Turns out Hillis’s new agent is named “Dave.” No last name.
Hillis has now employed 4 “agents.”
Of course Hillis isn’t “joining” the CIA. He’s been high-level in it for years, running his own cell of agents.
Schefter isn’t exactly reliable so I would probably believe Hillis on this one.
This one time Peyton Hillis was talking to a trainer and he said, “See I ai…” before trailing off. He was going to say “See I ain’t that bad of a guy.” but it sounded like CIA to Schefter’s source who might or might not work with a bucket and a mop…
Sources say I made this whole thing up, but it could be true anyway.
I’ve never been a big Schefter fan… “whispers”, “team sources”, etc, etc. Blah blah blah. It’s so grey and there’s no one or anything to hold him accountable for being incorrect. I’d take Mort or Tim Kurkjian any day.
Sorry – was being facetious about the “team sources” thing. Sometimes forget to use sarcasm font.
maybe he was using the CIA like Andy was using the FBI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yknG2cRW_c
The guy runs headfirst into piles of big NFL players. No wonder he is losing it. Soon we will see this happening at Browns stadium (replace Forrest with Hillis)…
http://youtu.be/Q9EBdz8ND-0
Only someone who was truly a CIA agent would deny being a CIA agent. Therefore he must be a CIA agent.
This placing of information is all part of an elaborate plot to get Hillis to leave and sign with the Patriots. Don’t let Belicheck fool us into believing we don’t want this guy anymore, we will all be sorry if he ends up in New England.
Unless we go and get Michael Bush.
I DID hear that known authority…LOL…Aaron on WKNR – as I had it on ever so briefly on Sat. am, say the Scheftner was an authority on ANYTHING he writes about?! I like this video better (and yes, that is me chatting it up with Aaron on “All Bet’s are Off” on STO recently…admitting to being swirlied & pantsed on the air – WOW?! Why do that?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5VoKMOvw38
All this drama makes it look bad for any “high profiled” players to come here. I think we can all agree Hillis was the face of the franchise which netted him the cover of Madden but look where he is now. Who knows if it’s him or the Browns either way both parties continue to look like idiots. The unfortunate part is the Browns still need Hillis. They can’t go with Hardesty and Jackson (I’m sure they’d draft someone) for next season. This is another reason you don’t trade multiple picks. This roster has waaaay to many holes.
It was a simple case of misunderstanding. Hillis wanted to be a FREE agent not a SECRET agent.