Chase Winovich on being traded from Patriots: ‘You guys didn’t like the haircut?’
"And they called me into — the ‘grim reaper’ they call him — called me into Bill’s office. And they told me that they were trading me. And that was the first thing I said: ‘You guys didn’t like the haircut?
When he was on the Patriots, Chase Winovich had long blonde hair that he let grow for years.
But one day while he was working out by himself in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he had a dream that told him it was time to cut the hair.
“So, I woke up the next day, and I told my mom,” Winovich told reporters in a video posted to Twitter by @cdotcombrowns. “I said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna cut my hair. That’s the only person I’ve told.’ Drove down to some random place, I’m like, ‘Do you have any availability for a haircut?’ She’s like, ‘Ah, I got nothing all weekend.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ I went to walk out the door, and she’s like, ‘Are you Chase Winovich?’ And I was just like, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ She’s like, ‘Actually, I’m free in about 20 minutes.”
Three days after Winovich got the haircut, the Patriots traded him to the Cleveland Browns for linebacker Mack Wilson.
“I went in the [Patriots’] facilities three days later,” Winovich said. “And they called me into — the ‘grim reaper’ they call him — called me into Bill’s office. And they told me that they were trading me. And that was the first thing I said: ‘You guys didn’t like the haircut? You guys didn’t like the haircut, you traded me?’ So, it’s kinda funny how that works out timing-wise. But I don’t think that had anything to do with it.”
Winovich, a 2019 third-round pick from Michigan, started nine games in 2020 at defensive end. He recorded 85 tackles and 11 sacks over three seasons with the Patriots. New England placed him on IR after a hamstring injury late in the season in 2021.
Patriots players used to joke about cutting Winovich’s hair. Tom Brady once cut a few strands of it during a preseason game. Now, most of it is gone.
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