I know what happened George, call me if you need additional detail
Before we get on with football picks, game journals and Dallas weekend I wanted quickly to address something I read in last week's Washington Post. WaPo sports editor emeritus George Solomon, a man who gently rejected my application for employment at WaPo sports in 1995, with a personal letter I might add, maintains a Sunday column in Sports where he writes about local sports and pretty much anything he wants, it is a good column.
Last Sunday, the same day the Redskins were to play the Cardinals at Redskins Stadium, George wrote that he had seen former Penn State, Redskins and Giants linebacker LaVar Arrington in the media booth the previous week when the Redskins played the Saints at Redskins Stadium, here is the extent of George's comment on the meeting:
I miss LaVar playing for the Redskins. He has charisma. So does Jason Taylor. I still don't understand what happened with LaVar and the Redskins.
I do George and I have written about it extensively, start here and that piece links back to two previous LaVar centric Curly R pieces. Shorter Ben:
1. LaVar Arrington is drafted by the Redskins in April 2000 and becomes a star. Starts in Pro Bowl after 2001, 2002 and 2003 seasons.
2. LaVar signs eight year 68 million dollar contract extension in December of the 2003 season.
3. LaVar files a grievance with the league over a missing 6.5 million dollar roster bonus that would be due before the 2006 season, in other words in two seasons. LaVar and his agent Carl Poston argue the Redskins promised the bonus but that it was removed from the final draft of the contract which was delivered to Carl and LaVar at the last possible second before the NFL deadline and that by gaming the clock the Redskins negotiated in bad faith.
4. Joe Gibbs returns to the Redskins before the 2004 season, hires Gregg Williams to be defensive coordinator. In April LaVar rips the team and local media for their handling of the grievance, all but accusing both of conspiring to make LaVar the bad guy.
5. NFLPA Executive Director Gene Upshaw and Joe Gibbs cannot negotiate a settlement of the issue and the matter goes to formal arbitration. Going into 2004 training camp the tension between the team and LaVar over the grievance is palpable.
6. LaVar has minor knee surgery three weeks into the 2004 season then slips on wet grass in his first practice back, is placed on IR two games later. LaVar starts two games in 2004, appears in four overall.
6. Redskins go on to have a top three defense in 2004 without LaVar.
7. Pessimists and conspiracists like myself come to believe that LaVar may have been dogging it through parts of 2004 on bad advice from his agent in an attempt to punish the team for the missing bonus, that if the team was not going to pony up what they promised that LaVar would essentially do nothing and slurp his entire 2004 salary of 3.5 million dollars for doing nothing.
8. LaVar and the team avoid arbitration and settle the matter with no compensation for LaVar. Terms of his contract are however amended.
9. Although healthy for the entire season LaVar plays sparingly in 2005 and almost never on third or fourth down. By October of that season conventional wisdom has hardened into fall from grace story about LaVar.
10. LaVar gets into a shouting match with Redskins linebackers coach Dale Lindsey at the end of the final game of the 2005 season, a win over the Giants that sent the Redskins into the playoffs, one that starts on the field and ends in the locker room.
11. The NFLPA takes action against LaVar's agent, Carl Poston, for multiple offenses related to the original grievance filed over the missing bonus: negligence in handling the contract extension, failure to cooperate with the investigation of the grievance claim, failure to report a violation of the contract, hiding contract information from his client LaVar and fraud. The NFLPA recommends and then hands down a two year suspension for Carl and he countersues in federal court.
12. LaVar is released by the Redskins, forced to buy his own free agency through forfeiture of guaranteed monies.
13. LaVar is signed by the Giants prior to the 2006 season and conducts an interview published on Giants.com in which he admits to stealing a Redskins playbook on the way out the door and all but admits he did not even try and play hard through 2004 and 2005 with the Redskins.
Bonus October 2005 Washington Post graphic from here:
LaVar was Dan Snyder's favorite son until he got some bad counsel from his agent. Well known at this point for overpaying for players, Dan would have had no reason to short change his favorite player, coming as he was right off his third straight Pro Bowl. By sticking with his agent's bad advice LaVar forced the issue up front in the media and team operations and did himself no favors by not appearing willing to play hard in 2004. LaVar miscalculated the degree to which Gregg Williams would need him and by the time LaVar was ready to let bygones be bygones, hey it's just business, Dan Snyder had grown bitter and the team moved on. Dan is a spiteful spiteful man, made LaVar suffer humiliation on his way out of town, the footall equivalent of being tarred and feathered.
It is too bad, LaVar was one of my all time favorite Redskins players.
LaVar Arrington and Marty Schottenheimer from the Redskins 2001 season from here, credited to the Washington Post with no attribution.
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