Christian Kirksey delivers loud and clear message to Browns teammates that they aren't quitting
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2017/11/christian_kirksey_delivers_lou.htmlBy Dan Labbe, cleveland.com
dlabbe@cleveland.com
CINCINNATI, Ohio -- Browns linebacker Christian Kirksey has been here before: on a winless team, sliding toward the wrong side of history. Last year, to be exact.
"We're not going 0-16," he declared following an early November loss to Dallas in 2016 that dropped the Browns to 0-9. They didn't go 0-16, though they came awfully close, failing to win until their next-to-last game on Christmas Eve.
Sunday, following a loss that dropped the Browns to 0-11, Kirksey delivered another message, this time behind closed doors, though it was audible to those waiting in the interview room for head coach Hue Jackson.
"That was a guy on this team who is a leader, and he was telling this team to keep fighting," Jackson said.
"It's a man's game," Kirksey said. "Men don't quit. Men don't fold. So I was just encouraging the guys to keep grinding, keep trying to move forward, don't get down on yourself, don't hold your head."
It's one thing that you can point to with this roster the last two years. For all the flaws, the one thing that no one can say is that they have given up.
Kirksey, in his fourth season, has been thrust into a leadership role on a Browns roster that has gotten ever younger. He's credited the likes of former Browns Karlos Dansby and Craig Robertson in helping guide him early in his career, and now he's the one doing the guiding.
"I don't sense we're giving up at all," Kirksey said. "I just wanted to keep putting special emphasis on that. Whenever you're a winless team, sometimes guys can drift away. So I'm not saying that that's what guys are doing, but I just wanted to make sure that that's not happening."
It has been a trying few years for Kirksey who came into the league and started 7-4. Since that time, he's won just four games, has seen one front office and coaching staff sent packing. There are, predictably, rumors swirling around this current regime. Kirksey was asked about Jackson's future and he took up for his embattled coach.
"That's my head coach," Kirksey said. "I wouldn't want to play for nobody else. That's my head coach. He's the coach of the Cleveland Browns, and I'll forever have his back. And that's what the men in this room do. We have his back."
Tight end David Njoku echoed Kirksey's sentiment when asked about his message.
"We're not sitting down. We're not folding our hands. We're going to keep fighting all the way till the end," Njoku said. "Every play, every down, no matter what the score is, we're going to keep fighting. That's just how we're built. At some point, it's a pride thing. So we're not quitting."
For Kirksey, it was all about one thing: moving forward.
"It's my job to keep these guys going, keep pushing and just keep sticking to the process and sticking to our goals, and everything will work itself out," Kirksey said. "There's no time to complain about a call. There's no time to say, 'Oh, this could have gone that way or kind of feel sorry for ourselves.' This is a man's game."
