Browns Release Starter Jermaine Whitehead After Twitter Death Threats

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The Browns have released safety Jermaine Whitehead, 13 hours after he directed death threats at critics on Twitter, the team announced Monday. 

Whitehead, while sitting in the locker room minutes after Cleveland’s loss to the Broncos still dressed in his full uniform, sent a number of threatening tweets to fans and one media member. His account was quickly suspended, after which he continuing issuing threats in direct messages on Instagram. 

Whitehead told one user “Imma kill you b----” and told Browns radio analyst Dustin Fox, who criticized Whitehead’s tackling, “don‘t get smoked.” Whitehead also called Fox a “cracker.”

The Browns issued a statement Sunday night calling Whitehead’s comments “unacceptable and highly inappropriate.”

Whitehead, who went undrafted out of Auburn in 2015, played his first NFL game with the Packers in 2016. He was waived by Green Bay last November and picked up by the Browns. He had started all eight games for Cleveland this season.