NEWS & VIEWS
Redskins give troubled Foster another chance that he does not deserve ... Lions practise outdoors again — and that’s just fine ... Big Ben needs to keep his mouth shut
1. Washington doubles down on claiming Reuben Foster off waivers.
NEWS: The Redskins are making no apologies for this controversial acquisition, which came one day after the San Francisco 49ers on Monday officially waived the secondyear linebacker, following his latest domestic-violation accusation. The 24-year-old allegedly slapped a girlfriend in the face at the Niners’ team hotel on Saturday in Tampa. Police charged Foster with one count of first-degree misdemeanour domestic violence.
After the Redskins claimed Foster, the league placed him on the commissioner’s exempt list. It means he cannot practise or play, nor will he take up a roster spot, until the league decides after an investigation whether Foster should be suspended. The club said it, too, is investigating.
In the spring Foster was charged in the Bay Area with a felony count of domestic violence for allegedly attacking his girlfriend, who was left with a bruised arm and ruptured ear drum. But she recanted her story and charges were dismissed.
Earlier this year, Foster was arrested in Alabama on a second-degree marijuana possession charge, which was later dismissed once
Foster completed a diversion class. But as a result the NFL suspended Foster for the first two games this season, for violating the league’s policy on substances of abuse.
VIEW: Everyone looks bad with this signing. First, in the eyes of the general public the NFL cannot ever seem to get it right with domestic violence. But the league could not prevent what the Redskins did.
Owner Daniel Snyder, who has been hiding from the media for years, undoubtedly signed off on this controversial move. But it was left for only head coach Jay Gruden — and no one from the front office — to publicly answer for the move.
“It’s a team decision,” Gruden said. “I think we all had our hand in it. We accept, obviously, the questions. But we want to let the process play out and see what happens.
“There’s no guarantee
(Foster is) ever going to play here, to be honest with you. He has a lot of work to do personally — with the team, with the NFL, with himself — before he even thinks about playing football again.”
Did Redskins leaders consider public reaction as they deliberated whether to claim Foster?
“A little bit, yeah, I’m sure there was,” Gruden said. “From (president/GM) Bruce (Allen) and Dan (Snyder) and obviously Doug (Williams, senior VP of player personnel). But at the end of the day, we decided to make the move and we’ll deal with the outcry, so to speak.
“This is a young athlete, young person, who got himself into some trouble and we want to find out exactly what happened.”
Some trouble. Jeesh.
Why in the world wouldn’t the Redskins have waited to acquire Foster until legal and league investigations were completed?
“Well, we didn’t know who was going to claim him or not claim him,” Gruden said. “That’s kind of the way the waiver wire works. You put the claim in and if somebody claims in front of you, you don’t get him.”
Hey, you’ve got to give Gruden top marks for honesty, for not trying to over-spin it. But the back-pats stop there.
Foster appears to be one of those richly talented football players oblivious to the fact he has a self-destruct mechanism off the field. Or maybe it’s extreme stupidity. Bottom line, offered help doesn’t help, and threats don’t work.
Bottom line, Foster did not deserve this second NFL chance before everyone from law authorities in Tampa, to the NFL, to club investigators had any idea how deplorable (or not) his actions might have been on Saturday.
Thus the Redskins, if not the NFL too, just confirmed in the worst possible way what the league’s critics and cynics already believed: that a player’s talent, in the end, trumps his character.
2. The Lions practised outdoors again before an indoor game
NEWS:: For the second time since mid-November, Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia had his stumbling team practise outdoors on a brutally wintry day, to prepare for an indoor game on Sunday.
VIEW:: The first-year head coach received a lot of criticism, from me even, the first time two weeks ago. This time, I’m laying off.
Look, we ought to learn by this time next year whether Patricia is over his head as a head coach, and whether he’s just the latest Bill Belichick disciple who implemented Hoody McGrumpypants’ unshakeable ‘I’m always right’ attitude and leadership style before earning it.
But for Patricia to have his charges practise in snow and sub-freezing temperatures a second time like this probably is an indication he believes his Lions players need some toughening up. They probably do. So more power to him. One franchise playoff win since Elvis Presley broke big doesn’t exactly disprove such need.
3. Big Ben criticizes a teammate in a radio interview.
NEWS: Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger called out teammate James Washington, a wide receiver, for dropping a likely touchdown pass late in the Steelers’ loss at Denver. Washington seemed to slow up on a long, deep pass before realizing he shouldn’t have — then leapt, momentarily grabbed the ball, twisted, then lost the ball upon landing on his back for an incompletion.
“I’m not really sure what he was doing,” Roethlisberger said. “James needs to run through that, and it’s a touchdown.”
VIEW: Shut up, Ben.
If you hadn’t thrown two interceptions, including one near game’s end on the cusp of the goal line that effectively ended the game, maybe then you’d be in the position to criticize. But even then, a pro sport team’s leading player cannot share such criticisms publicly.
As Denver Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders said:
“If I was in that locker room, that wouldn’t sit well with me, because that’s a situation that I feel like you handle in-house, instead of talking about it (publicly).
“Obviously he’s the leader of that team ... and everybody looks to him to lead. So in doing that, in going to the media and saying those things, I definitely would pull him to the side and be like, ‘Hey, man, if you have a problem with anything I do on the field, I would rather you talk to me in person about it, than talk about it on the radio, because there (are) ways to avoid that ... Ben knows that.” He sure does.
It’s yet more proof this Steelers team doesn’t handle adversity well. And that doesn’t bode well with the playoffs just five weeks away.