Browns: Hillis reinjures hamstring; teammate calls him a ‘different guy’ in report Golf Tips

Browns: Hillis reinjures hamstring; teammate calls him a ‘different guy’ in report

November 5, 2011, 1:02 am

Teammates are starting to turn on Peyton Hillis, according to a Yahoo! report, and that’s on top of physical ailments that have put Hillis’ chances of playing against the Texans on Sunday in jeopardy.

Hillis, dressed in sweatpants and shells as is typical of a Friday practice, ran a play up the middle and before completing it pulled up in obvious pain after reinjuring his left hamstring. He slammed the ball to the ground and flung his helmet skidding across the field. He bent over at the waist with his hands on his knees until a trainer walked over to assist him.

Hillis underwent an MRI and returned to the Browns’ training facility in the afternoon. The Browns did not provide an update, but the chances of him playing in Houston seem remote at best. The injury caused him to miss the games against Seattle and San Francisco.

“It’s a game where you have injuries,” Coach Pat Shurmur said after the Friday practice. “You try to fight back from them, and that’s what we all try to do. At this point though, unfortunately, if he’s not ready to go we just move on.”

Hillis was listed as questionable on the Friday injury report, meaning there is a 50-50 chance he’ll play against the Texans. The Browns are preparing as though Chris Ogbonnaya will start and Thomas Clayton, signed Tuesday after winning a tryout, will be behind Colt McCoy on Sunday.

If a story by Mike Silver of Yahoo! Sports is an indicator of locker room sentiment not expressed to everyday beat writers, Hillis has a lot more than a pulled hamstring to overcome.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Silver quotes one unnamed Browns veteran saying. “Last year, Peyton was such a positive, inspirational force on our team — but now he’s like a different guy. It’s like he’s in a funk that he can’t get out of, and it’s killing us, because we really need him. And we’ve told him that. But we’re at the point where we just don’t know what to do.”

Doug Dieken, a Browns left tackle from 1971-84 and now the color commentator on radio, called out Hillis on Friday during the “Cleveland Browns Daily” radio show on WKNR-AM 850. He criticized Hillis for not spending enough time with trainers, saying injured players have to get as much treatment as they can.

“You want to take off in the middle of the week and not take treatment,” Dieken said.

Hillis was married on Oct. 25, the players’ day off, in Arkansas. He practiced the next day, aggravated the hamstring injury, missed the game against the 49ers and did not practice again until Thursday. One day later, he is hurt again.

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