Browns’ Taylor won’t talk about Rice incident

Associated Press

BEREA

When the Ravens and Browns last met, the spit hit the big man.

Phil Taylor, Cleveland’s massive defensive tackle, accused Baltimore running back Ray Rice of spitting in his face during the opening minutes of the Ravens’ 14-6 win over the Browns on Sept. 15. The “incident” set the tone in another physical game between the AFC North rivals, who haven’t exchanged Christmas cards for years.

Rice explained this week that he was only “jawing” at Taylor and didn’t intend to send anything other than some choice words in his direction. He even complimented Taylor on being “a great, young player.”

Browns safety T.J. Ward thought that was a good idea.

“I don’t see any reason why you’d want to give Phil Taylor any extra motivation,” Ward said. “I’m sure he’s going to be on his ‘A’ game this week.”

All of Cleveland’s players need to be at their best Sunday if the Browns (3-5) intend to snap an 11-game losing streak against the Ravens.

“We’ve been the kid brother for a while, and we need to stand up in this division and do the things that we need to do,” Browns coach Rob Chudzinski said.

As for the “exchange” between Rice and Taylor earlier this season, both players spent as little time as possible reviewing what happened on the second play from scrimmage in Week 2.

After he was thrown for a three-yard loss, Rice jumped to his feet and immediately began yelling in the direction of Taylor, who returned the verbal fire. As words flew, some did some fluid and Taylor responded by slapping Rice on the side of the helmet and drawing a 15-yard personal foul.

“It is what it is,” said the 6-foot-3, 335-pound Taylor. “So we’re both moving on from it and getting ready for this game.”

Browns running back Willis McGahee, who spent four seasons with the Ravens, was unaware of the Rice-Taylor situation because he hadn’t signed with Cleveland yet.

McGahee always expects some trash talking, minus other projectiles from the mouth.

“I didn’t know anything about that,” McGahee said. “Well, that’s a different story when you’re exchanging body fluids. Yeah, that’s tough.”