There's something of a medical mystery going on with the Cleveland Browns that has been brought into focus again with the news that veteran wide receiver Joe Jurevicius is likely to miss the first six weeks of the season on the physically unable to perform list. There are also whispers that Jurevicius, 33, who caught 50 passes last season while playing on a bad knee, might be looking at the prospect that his season is loss and possibly that his career is over. He had said that this would be his last year with the Browns, his hometown team.

At issue is staph infection. Jurevicius had routine arthroscopic knee surgery back in January and two weeks later developed the infection. Since then he has had at least one more surgery (perhaps more, according to some reports) to deal with the infection. Where all this gets interesting is that he's the sixth Browns player in four years to be hit with staph infection. Former Browns center LeCharles Bentley was the most adversely affected and required emergency surgery.

The Cleveland Clinic, where a number of the Browns surgeries have taken place, has visited the Browns training facility twice (2005 and 2006) for infection prevention purposes and the facility was cleaned specifically for staph last year. Among other Browns hit with staph were wide receiver Braylon Edwards and tight end Kellen Winslow.