November 12, 2008

Arrington Strikes Back Against Evil Empire

It was never a well-kept secret, but LaVar Arrington is not happy about how he was treated by the Washington Redskins. Arrington, once the poster child for the franchise, was basically exiled in his last couple years with the Skins. Now that he found a microphone, he isn't too happy about it.

Arrington's relationship with the Skins was rocky from the start. In a typical sign of Redskins incompetence, Arrington was taken second overall in 2000, with fellow Redskin LT Chris Samuels taken immediately behind him. The Skins took Arrington before Samuels because they wanted to keep the price of an LT down. Arrington, they figured, had a shorter career span than Samuels and he had more of a downside transitioning from PSU to the NFL.

Then there was the contract issue. Arrington will swear to his grave that the contract he signed with the Skins in 2003 was not the deal he and his agents had agreed to. His agents, in fact, are still suspended from representing NFL players. The allegation is basically that the Skins pulled one over on him by switching the contract he signed with the one he agreed to. According to Arrington and others, the oversight cost him $6.5M in bonuses that he'd have earned.

Arrington's relationship with the Skins was spoiled from that point forward, so he took the only revenge he felt was sufficient. He followed Antonio Pierce and signed with the New York Giants. After an injury-plagued season there, he announced he was thinking of retiring. A motorcycle crash in June 2007 near Collington Road on Route 50 near Bowie, Maryland, sealed his fate. He hasn't played since.

So here we are. Arrington granted an interview to the Washington Times in which he called Joe Gibbs (three Lombardis) a coward for leaving the team to go back to NASCAR. He also alleged that Little Danny Snyder is scared to death of him based on a cold exchange when the two met recently.

Whose side are we on? Did Arrington, who said that politics screwed him more than anything else, get a raw deal? Did the Skins rightfully bail on a 2nd overall pick that never lived up to his talent?

4 Responses:

big tuna said...

That second paragraph seems like solid logic to me. I don't see why that is a sign of incompetence.

terphed said...

I loved watching LaVar when he was given room to move, but he never acclimated to the Gibbs system. He was disgruntled and injured for most of Gibbs's tenure. I just hope he has enough money to retire, because making comments like these hurt his retirement prospects for opening a car dealership in Lanham.

J-Red said...

The incompetence was in that it pissed off the impact player at the expense of the passive player. The dollar difference was negligible, except that Samuels was tied to the LT scale no matter how well he player. LaVar was on an impact scale which could drastically increase his pay overnight.

J-Red said...

I lived in Lanham for a while and LaVar would CLEAN UP there. Same with New Carrollton or Landover or any of the 100% Skins mostly-Black suburbs.

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