Former Cowboy Weeden Rips SI, Calls Writer "Clown"

Former Oklahoma State Cowboy and current Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden spoke to the media in Cleveland on Wednesday, addressing the allegations made by Sports Illustrated toward his alma mater.

It's safe to say Weeden isn't buying what SI is selling.

"I read the story the first week the story came out and I laughed throughout the entire thing," Weeden said. "It's comical for a lot of reasons."

Weeden's main complaint circles around the man leading the investigation, Thayer Evans. He claims Evans has an axe to grind with Oklahoma State and is going out of his way to paint the school in a bad light.

"The guy that wrote the article (laughing); we had a little run-in at Texas," Weeden said. "He's an OU guy; he'd always had it in for Oklahoma State. So he comes up to me after we beat Texas and he said, ‘So when's it gonna happen? When's Okie State gonna pull an Okie Choke, just like they always do?' And I laughed and I said, ‘Who is this clown?' Long story short, he's always had it in for Oklahoma State."

OSU's all-time leader in passing yards and touchdowns played for the Cowboys from 2007-11 and says he never saw anything close to what Evans and SI are alleging.

"Coach (Mike) Gundy does an unbelievable job of running a clean program," Weeden said. "He takes a lot of pride in that. Mr. Pickens (OSU donor T. Boone Pickens) is all about keeping everything clean, playing by the rules, doing the right thing. In my five years there I saw nothing but that – it was a very clean-ran organization. No wrongdoings of anything I ever saw."

Weeden also expressed his disappointment in Sports Illustrated for the way it handled the investigation, suggesting perhaps the magazine gave too much leeway to the man he referred to as a "clown."

"Here's what I'm surprised about," Weeden explained. "Is a credible institution like Sports Illustrated would do 10 months of investigations and then all of the sudden have no credible facts to go along with their story."

He went on to explain that the players SI did choose to interview were poor choices due to potential grudges toward the program.

"The guys that they did question were not good sources to question because they're the guys that got kicked off the team for drugs, or guys that were kicked off the team for whatever reason it may be," he said. "They were dismissed (and) aren't real credible."

Weeden said he's looking forward to the rest of Sports Illustrated's series to be released so the truth can be exposed.

"It's comical, it really is. I can't wait to read the other four (segments), I really can't. He (Evans) knows his agenda – he's got a wrong one."