Any football fan knows how talented tight ends Kellen Winslow and Jeremy Shockey are.

And any football fan also can see how much better Winslow’s and Shockey’s teams have fared without them.

This season, without Winslow on the field, the Browns have gone 2-0, beating the defending world-champion Giants and the tough Jacksonville Jaguars. Without Winslow, the Browns have averaged 29 points per game. Without Winslow, the offense has looked stronger and the team has played better.

Now it might be an oddity if it weren’t for this: The same thing happened last season when the Giants lost Shockey to a season-ending broken leg.

Once Shockey was out of the lineup, Giants quarterback Eli Manning looked and played more relaxed. Once Manning looked and played more relaxed, the Giants went on one of the all-time playoff runs, winning three straight road games and then Super Bowl XLII against the Patriots.

So, that’s two straight seasons in which two teams have lost two University of Miami tight ends and turned out better for it.

Few schools have produced more talent than Miami. But when it comes to producing tight ends that make their teams better, ‘The U’ gets an F.

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