Opinions on Lavar Arrington (Merged 2X)

[MRMADD]

Of course Arrington is frustrated. Danny and the front office, in his opinion, screwed him. Now they exclude him -- their former golden boy -- from their marketing plans, which is a very clear, unmistakeable message. His coaches benched him. His style of play is not a good fit for the scheme. And to top it off, his contract is unmanageable -- and it's exceedingly unlikely that Danny will write that $6.5m check in July.

Here's a quick reminder of the cap situation with Arrington (if you want all the caveats, go back and read the original thread):

here's the net: keeping Arrington costs the Skins $7m against the cap next year. Trading him costs $12.5m. Releasing him costs $5m next year and $7m the year after.

So I'd say the chances of Arrington staying in DC are pretty slim. Well, maybe 80/20. He costs too much, he contributes too little, he's become a bit of a problem child, he's still suffering a little from the injury, and he's pissed off the organization. His feeling of aggrievement makes it unlikely that he'll renegotiate his contract -- too many hurt feelings for poor Lavar. Worst of all for him: Joe Gibbs can handle prima donnas, but not ones that aren't team players. Whining to the media the week of a make-or-break game? That ain't exactly Joe Gibbs style. He could deal with Manley and Riggins and all the rest because they were warriors. Arrington? He might have a little too much crybaby in him for Joe.

What the media consistently gets wrong is that it would actually be quite possible to trade him, not just release him. They'd have to work some cap magic through renegotiations, but they could get something in return for Lavar. Probably more if he'd keep his mouth shut, but that's not gonna happen.

So Arrington is spouting off at exactly the wrong time. Yawn. It's funny -- a few months ago, when Lavar was on the pine, about 60% of posters wanted him gone in the offseason if the Skins could get something in return. If you asked that question last week, it would have been about 10%. Now... probably back up close to 50%.

[dwills1]

In a moment of disbelief, I was told of the Lavar Arrington comments and initially shrugged them off. Blasphemy I shouted, LA loves DC, that report was done months ago. Well, to my stubborn realization, LA did say what he said...but what did he really say? I would rather retire than play for another team? Excuse me please, but hearing those words seem to bring a fire to my heart. You see, this is a guy who has been through injuries, 5 different defensive coordinators, ridicule, never making the playoffs, and a situation this year where he missed the majority of the first quarter of the season. NO we aren't talking about TO who downs his teammates and his coaches, we are talking about a guy who through all the tough times, praised coaches and players. We are talking about a guy who is complaining about not wanting to leave. A man who has embraced the city of DC with open arms.

Was the timing bad? SURE it was. The team is on the brink of doing something special. As fans, should you ever get mad at a player for openly admitting that he doesn't want to leave and would rather retire than go to another team? NO. As a matter of fact, in today's egotistically high dollar sports world, its is unheard of to hear a player express openly his desire to stay with one team so vehemently. So what are we really complaining about? A man that wants to be here, or a select group of fans that don't want him? Lavar Arrington wants to be a Redskin for life. His emotions and dedication to this team have been shown throughout his career. Look at the roster from 5 years ago, and look at it now. Only a handful remain, and Arrington is one of them.

Was it all about LA? How can you say? What is so attention getting about expressing your desire to finish your career with a team? He wasn't drawing attention to anything other than his love for this team, city, and the fans!For a city of fans looking for consistency, why not want players who demonstrate just that. In my best musical karaoke voice : I love LA!!!

[SKINZ_DOMIN8]

You are a homer. Arrington has done practically nothing since he came here except run his mouth. 2 years straight we have had a top defense with him playing very little or none at all.

I rest my case.

[Monte51Coleman]

These thoughts necessitated a new thread because?

(sorry, I forgot the smiley. )

[GhostRider]

It sounded to me like he wanted sympathy and he's a quitter.

[stevenaa]

How about using one of the existing threads. This subject is being beat to death in many others.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

I will say this much...Antonio Pierce has claimed "disrespect" by the Skins organization over far, far less...of course he didn't claim this while still wearing a Skins uniform, either...lol

I don't doubt for a second that LaVar loves this team and craves to stay a Redskin for his entire career, to the point of seriously considering retiring if he gets released. He just needs to shut up about everything else for awhile... :laugh:

[tlk2rn]

You are a homer. Arrington has done practically nothing since he came here except run his mouth. 2 years straight we have had a top defense with him playing very little or none at all.

I rest my case.

Done practically nothing huh?

[skinstzar]

You are a homer. Arrington has done practically nothing since he came here except run his mouth. 2 years straight we have had a top defense with him playing very little or none at all.

I rest my case.

You have no case, you obviously don't pay attention. Lavar has played a good amount and played very well over the last 8 weeks. He had 6 tackles in that big win over the Giants. He has also made 3 pro bowls. You can't give me that crap about the pro bowl being overrated. The votes are 1/3 fan vote 1/3 player vote 1/3 coaches vote. He has immense value to this franchise. GW also said that he is a better coach when Lavar is on the field. Lawrence Taylor was a coke head for crying out loud. That is the guy that everyone so unfairly compares Lavar too. I will take Lavar's bad timing and faults over that any day. People who give up on Lavar are the true quitters.

[melonhead1959]

If he has become a malcontent, trade his ass to the Saints. Then he'll realize how blessed he was to be a Redskin!

:eaglesuck

[21KillzCowboys]

Amen...I just can't see us missing him. We don't need malcontents, see last year.

[tlk2rn]

Every 3 minutes it somes that some one post an LA thread. Man arent you getting tired of this already beaten topic.

[gridironmike]

With Clemons out (and I have wondered all year why they weren't on the field to gether OR Lavar in his spot), I expect Lavar to fill his spot at the rush end and make life rough for McMahon this weekend. Everyone will be thrilled with Lavar on Monday morning.

[skinstzar]

I would like to go on record stating that I have not started a Lavar thread.

[Waleo32]

In a moment of disbelief, I was told of the Lavar Arrington comments and initially shrugged them off. Blasphemy I shouted, LA loves DC, that report was done months ago. Well, to my stubborn realization, LA did say what he said...but what did he really say? I would rather retire than play for another team? Excuse me please, but hearing those words seem to bring a fire to my heart. You see, this is a guy who has been through injuries, 5 different defensive coordinators, ridicule, never making the playoffs, and a situation this year where he missed the majority of the first quarter of the season. NO we aren't talking about TO who downs his teammates and his coaches, we are talking about a guy who through all the tough times, praised coaches and players. We are talking about a guy who is complaining about not wanting to leave. A man who has embraced the city of DC with open arms.

Was the timing bad? SURE it was. The team is on the brink of doing something special. As fans, should you ever get mad at a player for openly admitting that he doesn't want to leave and would rather retire than go to another team? NO. As a matter of fact, in today's egotistically high dollar sports world, its is unheard of to hear a player express openly his desire to stay with one team so vehemently. So what are we really complaining about? A man that wants to be here, or a select group of fans that don't want him? Lavar Arrington wants to be a Redskin for life. His emotions and dedication to this team have been shown throughout his career. Look at the roster from 5 years ago, and look at it now. Only a handful remain, and Arrington is one of them.

Was it all about LA? How can you say? What is so attention getting about expressing your desire to finish your career with a team? He wasn't drawing attention to anything other than his love for this team, city, and the fans!For a city of fans looking for consistency, why not want players who demonstrate just that. In my best musical karaoke voice : I love LA!!!

I agree with you! But people just want to bash the guy. I guess he's just to nice of a guy.

[Dirk Diggler]

Lavar Arrington - member of the Washington Redskins organization

Not for much longer, sucka. Enjoy his final regular season game.

[Om]

Time to get a handle on the multiple threads people are starting to voice their LaVar opinions.

Merging begins now.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

With Clemons out (and I have wondered all year why they weren't on the field to gether OR Lavar in his spot), I expect Lavar to fill his spot at the rush end and make life rough for McMahon this weekend. Everyone will be thrilled with Lavar on Monday morning.

Truer words have never been spoken...if there's one thing I've learned about sports fans, and fans on Extremeskins in particular, it's that they will go from hot to cold and back to hot again over a player, and the entire team, in a matter of seconds...just depends upon what good ESPN highlight-worthy play they just witnessed during the game.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

I would like to go on record stating that I have not started a Lavar thread.

:laugh:

Um, neither have I...Hmm, maybe I should start a thread asking only those who haven't started a LaVar thread to post on it...

[triple6mafia]

I dont understand this thread really. LaVar is playing, in my opinion, very well. I dont see why peole are hating on him so much. He is a valuable asset and is a playmaker. I love having him on our team and he is showing more discipline.

[DCMONEY]

Arrington's timing with this interview wasn't good but there's a lot of truth to his statements because before this interview, I always felt the Skins got rid of pretty good players. They bad mouth them to justify getting rid of them. That being said Lavar has played at a high level despite constant coaching changes. This would have an effect on anyone's game. Anyone who has played and has knowledge of the game knows this is true. Richie Petitbon was just on Sports 0980 and even said constant change makes a difference, not that I needed to hear him say this to know it. In any event I'd take a healthy Lavar over everyone of our LB's period. And for the record Jermiah Trotter needs pay attention to Philly. His non covering liability in space azz kills me. He got voted to the pro last year and that was bull. He's nothing but a downhill LB. If the play ain't coming at him he can't move his feet. Bum.

[MidPennSkin]

Here's a quick reminder of the cap situation with Arrington (if you want all the caveats, go back and read the original thread):

here's the net: keeping Arrington costs the Skins $7m against the cap next year. Trading him costs $12.5m. Releasing him costs $5m next year and $7m the year after.

Releasing him after June 1 probably won't result in cap hits of $5m in 2006 and $7m in 2007 because you can't spread dead cap hits from released players over two years in the last capped year of the CBA. If the CBA is successfully renegotiated before July 15 when Arrington's bonus comes due, then the cap hit could be spread into 2007, but how likely is that? Not very, IMHO, so the option to spread the cap hit over 2 years isn't going to be there. If it were, I'd go for it, but since it probably won't, we will probably keep LA one more year unless we can somehow come up with enough cap space to eat the $12m hit in 2006. This is also unlikely, IMHO, which is why I think LA will be here next year.

(this may have been mentioned in the original thread, but you didn't give a link to it so I couldn't go back and read it)

[E-Dog Night]

My buddy jusr sent me this rant in an email. Sugar coating is not his strong suit. :laugh: I did a little editing just in case the filter doesn't grab some of the more unsavory aspects of this email.

His little spoiled rant really opened my eyes to the fact that he is a ***** Ass Punk. I was shocked. He has always been cool in interviews but now I see the only reason WHY he was cool - everyone was always sucking his d***. The second that stopped he pulls this Diva ****, on the eve of the biggest game of his career. He is probably the reason why we have never gotten over the hump in the last 5 years, when we have been close in so many games. The "Leader" of our team and the highest paid player is a total selfish be-atch.

Man did Gibbs & Williams have him nailed. Did you hear all the **** he said about Joe Paterno, Marvin Lewis, etc???!!!! Its all THEIR fault. I think he should have to give his signing bonus back. We should definatley do to him what Philly did to TO. Suspend, then cut him. Ruin his career. Then we'll see about him quitting footaball to pursue "other interests". Yeah right Lavar, the only reason why you thought you could do other things is because you had a bunch of synchophants around telling you that you could do anything. Go try it. See what the real world is like. Go ahead, see what happens *****.

[floydfurillo]

Last week, after Chris Clemons got hurt, Lavar was still taken out in third down situations. My recollection was that Nic Clemons was installed as the rush end. Kind of ironic since that was supposed to be the only "package" that Lavar was suited for in the first quarter of the season when the coaching staff couldn't find any other way to get him on the field. So to posters who believe that Lavar will get extended playing on third down this week should not hold there breath. It is obvious that there is something going on not totally football related between Lavar and the defensive coaching staff.

[s0crates]

I've posted this in several threads already because it is relevant to all of them (If we had only one LA thread I would know exactly where to post it). I know there has been a lot said on the LA issue, but this is the first I've weighed in on the subject in months. Here is my take:

I was at the Giants game Sunday, on the home team side. I watched Lavar come off the field and knock over the Gatorade table, spilling water everywhere and disrupting the trainers. He was very PO'ed. The thing was, while he was throwing his tantrum, the team was playing their best game in years. To me, that little fit is symbolic of what Lavar has become. He is more concerned about himself than the team.

Don't get me wrong, I used to be a big Lavar fan. I have purchased two of his jerseys, one for me and one for my girlfriend. I looked forward to seeing him in Gregg William's defensive schemes. Sadly, he has put himself before the team lately. I don't like that.

Last year he begged to play at the end of the season. He got to play and then criticisized the team publicly for playing him. He said they rushed him back from an injury. So this year, they give him time to heal early in the season and he complains about not playing. WTF? Not only that, he also complained about his 65 million dollar contract. WTF? And now, before the biggest game of his career, he is more focused on what will happen to him next year than what will happen to the Redskins Sunday against the Eagles. Shame on him for giving this interview and shame on the Washington Times for printing it.

I had the highest hopes for Lavar. I enjoy watching his amazing athleticism and energy on the field. However, I am afraid he has become overpaid and selfish, making him a bad fit for the team-first, character-driven organization Gibbs is trying to rebuild.

We can clear a lot of cap room, which can be used to sign two or three valuable role players, by releasing him. It looks like that is the best thing for all parties at this juncture. Let somebody else deal with his tantrums.