Browns offensive tackle Tony Pashos toughed it out last season with a ruptured tendon in his foot that required offseason surgery, and now the Browns are cutting him because he failed a physical. That’s life in the NFL, but Pashos doesn’t have to like it.
Rick Smith, the agent for Pashos, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that Pashos is “really upset” about the Browns not showing him the same loyalty that he showed them.
“Tony feels like he had the team’s back last season,” Smith said. “He wishes the team had his back now.”
Smith said the Browns’ medical staff treated Pashos well and that there are no complaints in that department, but it bugs him that after Pashos played through the injury (which he suffered in the final preseason game), the Browns aren’t keeping him around.
“He had to be given an enormous amount of pain pills and shots,” Smith said. “It was an enormous amount, to the point where at Christmas, he went into the hospital with three ulcers from the pain medication. You can see that he missed the final regular season game, because he was in the hospital with the ulcers.”
Pashos is expected to miss at least some, and possibly all, of the 2012 season while rehabbing from his foot surgery. The Browns will save $2 million in cap space by cutting him.
