Lavar Gone

[freddyg12]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

Sorry to be so late with a comment but I've been in East Africa for the past two weeks.

This rupture between Arrington and the Redskins happened two years ago when there was the dispute over his contract and the Redskins played hard-ball with him. Yes, they had the signed contract on their side, but they CHOSE to play hardball and that put a crack in the "Redskin-for-life" posture. Then there was the business about how the team "mishandled" his injury two seasons ago and don't forget how he said he didn't know why he wasn't playing last year and Gibbs said he spent more time talking to LaVar than he did with any other player he ever coached. The relationship there was headed south...

Folks, this was a train wreck happening and all you had to do was take off the burgundy colored glasses and you'd see it. Who's to blame? Probably everyone involved here. And it won't do a damned bit of good to try to assess the blame.

Here's the deal. Gibbs and Williams want a "system defense" made up of highly disciplined players who carry out their assignments. LaVar Arrington does not prefer to play football that way and there was fundamental friction there and there would have been friction there in the future if he stayed.

The question in my mind is why didn't the Skins figure out a way to get Coles to pay them to become a free agent last year? If someone doesn't want to stay here and the coaches don't want to have them around all that much, wouldn't it be nice to make them pay the team $4M for the privilege of leaving town?

By my calculation, Arrington is out $4M at the moment. He was not likely ever to see the $6.5M roster bonus he was supposed to get this summer so that is not any real loss to him. Now what he needs to do is to get a deal that pays him a $4M signing bonus plus a base salary this year bigger than the one he had last year and he's ahead of the game. At age 27, he's likely to get that.

jambo bwana! caribu
The cba situation gave the team leverage as opposed to Coles' situation last year. Also, I think Coles called them on a "promise" to release him, one of Gibbs' mistakes not to be repeated.
The "hardball" stance that the skins took probably had as much to do w/his agents than w/Lavar. I think Snyder took it personally that Lavar sided w/the postons (who Danny hates) over him more than just the issue of $6.5 mil.