DENVER -- The Cleveland Browns waived safety Jermaine Whitehead on Monday morning, just hours after he posted profanity-laced and threatening comments on social media following Sunday's loss at Denver.
"Jermaine Whitehead's social media posts following today's game were totally unacceptable and highly inappropriate," a Browns spokesperson said in a statement Sunday night.
Broncos tight end Noah Fant ran over Whitehead on the way to a 75-yard touchdown reception. That, and a missed tackle on another big Denver play, drew criticism of Whitehead on social media. Shortly after the game ended, Whitehead responded on Twitter, including to former NFL player Dustin Fox, who appears on a postgame show for the Browns' radio network.
In response to Fox's criticism, Whitehead wrote, "Come get it in blood b---- made ass lil boy. I'm out there with a broke hand .. don't get smoked ... "
Whitehead also wrote, "Imma kill you b----.. that's on blood" to another Twitter user.
Whitehead's Twitter account was suspended before he had even left the visiting locker room. He declined to take questions from reporters.
Whitehead later took to Instagram to apologize for his performance, but not for the tweets.
"Crazy world. They line it up and say anything in the book too you," he said in the caption of a photo of himself walking outside with a suitcase in his right hand and a cast on the left one. "They tell you take the high road, when yo whole life you was taught to meet fire with fire. I do apologize for my performance, but having a broke hand and a strong fear of letting my team down is my downfall. Whatever happens happens. Ain trippin. They probably gone still talk crazy but this me getting smoke off my chest. I don't need one like.. this from me to me! Keep ya head up homie, can't nobody f--- with you. I dare em to try."
Whitehead, 26, is in his fourth NFL season after going undrafted out of Auburn in 2015. The Browns claimed him on waivers in November 2018, one day after the Green Bay Packers released him following an ejection for slapping an opponent in the face mask.
Browns safety Morgan Burnett, who also played with Whitehead in Green Bay, said he hoped the safety could find outside support.
"We're going to miss him because that was a guy that played a lot of snaps for us, a guy that was a good teammate in the locker room. I just feel like it was a situation where his emotions got the best of him," Burnett said. "We're going to miss him, but I think for me personally because I played with him in Green Bay, I take it past football and it's just something where I just want to pray for him, wish him the best and get the help that he needs and pray that he gets back on his feet.
"But as a team, just outside of football, just as a bond of brothers, we're going to miss him."
Burnett said he understood that the Browns couldn't tolerate Whitehead's posts.
"We all have to do a job," he said. "We all are held accountable and held to a certain standard no matter where we are within the organization. They stand behind the brand and I think that's just part of being a professional. You have to carry yourself a certain way even at times when you feel like your buttons are being pushed, you still have young people, young kids looking up to us and watching everything we say and the way we move.''