clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Cullen Fine with Kitna's Costume

It turns out all of the backlash against Jon Kitna for wearing a costume mocking assistant coach Joe Cullen was for nothing.  As I said on Wednesday, I thought the costume was in poor taste, but wanted to see what Cullen's reaction was before completely hating on Kitna.  I'm glad I did wait, because we now know that Cullen wasn't offended at all and probably even found the costume a little funny himself.

Detroit Lions assistant coach Joe Cullen said he is not upset that quarterback Jon Kitna wore a costume making fun of him at a Halloween party attended by teammates Monday night.

"No, not at all," Cullen said, shaking his head and smiling after practice Wednesday. "It's Halloween."


The problem with the public perception of what Kitna did is that it seems like most don't understand what it's like to be apart of an NFC locker room.  Whether you're a coach or a player, you're fair game to be made fun of and just have to laugh it off as Cullen did.
"People who understand an NFL locker room understand that when guys do things we joke with each other a lot," Kitna said. "Now, would I have done it last year? No. I think it would have been too close to when the situation happened.

"But Joe is somebody that I talk to and I know how far he's come and the changes that he's made and the things that he's done in his life. It was something actually I was hoping to win the contest and win the (vehicle), and I was going to give it to Joe, to be honest with you. But that didn't happen."


Rather than be angry at the costume, it seems that Cullen was only mad at the fact that Kitna didn't win the costume contest.
"It was a good costume and we all had fun with it," defensive tackle Cory Redding said. "Joe was really (ticked) off about it. I mean, he was still red this morning because Kitna didn't win. He was like, 'Man, the only thing I was mad at Kitna about is he didn't win.' So we all joked about it. It was all fun and games."

Hopefully now we can put this little incident behind us and move on.  There's no need to go after Kitna where wearing the costume as Cullen doesn't have a problem with it.  Looking back, it was pretty damn funny, and I'm pretty surprised Kitna didn't win that costume contest.