Ex-NFL player Kellen Winslow II gets 14 years for rapes

SAN DIEGO — Former NFL player Kellen Winslow II was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison for multiple rapes and other sexual offenses against five women in Southern California, including one who was homeless when he attacked her in 2018.

The 37-year-old son of San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame receiver Kellen Winslow appeared via videoconference at the hearing in San Diego Superior Court in Vista, a city north of San Diego. He declined to comment before his sentence, saying his lawyers had advised him not to speak.

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Blaine Bowman said Winslow can only be described with “two words and that is sexual predator.” He said he selected women who were vulnerable because of their age or their living situation with the idea that “hopefully he would get away with it in his mind.”

Winslow was once the highest-paid tight end in the league, earning more than $40 million over his 10 seasons before he left in 2013.

He was convicted of forcible rape, rape of an unconscious person, assault with intent to commit rape, indecent exposure, and lewd conduct in public. The forcible rape involved a woman who was homeless in his home town of Encinitas, a beach community north of San Diego.

The 14-year-sentence was the maximum allowed under a plea deal.