LaVar's last stand?... Gibbs Reply (merged)

[welch]

Sports media Entertainers. Not journalists.

(Elfin) != (Shirley_Povich)

[DEHog]

I'm surprised the national media hasn't picked this up yet...I saw nothing on Total Access tonight...let see how long it takes...

Not very long...one of the lead stories tonight on SC. ESPN sent Andrea Kramer over to Ashburn to talk with the Skins

This has been my point all along...
Why did LA feel in nessesary to inguage in any interview with Elfing and talk about anything outside of Philly. Gibbs, Taylor and Springs were all able to deflect when asked about LA retiring...

Goodbye Lavar...I for one will miss you!!

[skinsfano28]

i read in the paper today that he wouldnt mind playing for marty in san diego...any truth to that, im not sure where he said that in the article by elfin, but it was in the post on page E9...

[Snout]

For the life of me, I cannot understand why so many people are attributing this article to some evil motive on Elfin's part. Are there really that many conspiracy theorists in the world? Journalists get paid to write stories that are interesting to read, and controversial topics are more interesting than non-controversial ones. Elfin does not get paid to walk the party line. He is not paid to be a fan with a pen. If all you want to read and hear is supportive non-critical Redskins news, limit your exposure to Redskins.com

Whether you support Arrington or not, the bottom line is that he should have kept his mouth shut until the end of the season. For even raising the subject, I put responsibility for this article squarely on his shoulders.

[DEHog]

Whether you support Arrington or not, the bottom line is that he should have kept his mouth shut until the end of the season. For even raising the subject, I put responsibility for this article squarely on his shoulders.

[ChrisHanburger]

Whether you support Arrington or not, the bottom line is that he should have kept his mouth shut until the end of the season. For even raising the subject, I put responsibility for this article squarely on his shoulders.

Me too. perfectly said

[tcwest10]

Yeah, what he said.

[SkinsJock]

And I happen to think that Effin "twisted" it into whatever he thought would be more "anti-Redskins". The fact is given a choice of what he could "interpret", he is going to be aggressively anti-Redskins.
This is not about reporting per se but rather trying to be a distraction if possible.

That's just my 2 cents.

[tcwest10]

And I happen to think that Effin "twisted" it into whatever he thought would be more "anti-Redskins". The fact is given a choice of what he could "interpret", he is going to be aggressively anti-Redskins.
This is not about reporting per se but rather trying to be a distraction if possible.

That's just my 2 cents.

Arrington is right there with you, bro.

Check out the damage control.
http://www.washtimes.com/sports/2005122 ... -5416r.htm

[1niksder]

Arrington is right there with you, bro.

Check out the damage control.
http://www.washtimes.com/sports/2005122 ... -5416r.htm

This is just Effin re-running a story, 1st he runs it with what Lavar says was quotes taking out of context, then he give Lavar is says and runs the same thing with no context on the end of what LA had to say.

Effin is trying to stir the pot but he is out of ingredients.

and Trotter comenting on someone playing outside of a scheme... gave me a headache

[ChrisHanburger]

Arrington is right there with you, bro.

Check out the damage control.
http://www.washtimes.com/sports/2005122 ... -5416r.htm

This is just Effin re-running a story, 1st he runs it with what Lavar says was quotes taking out of context, then he give Lavar is says and runs the same thing with no context on the end of what LA had to say.

Effin is trying to stir the pot but he is out of ingredients.

and Trotter comenting on someone playing outside of a scheme... gave me a headache

You're all right. Elfin's an ass. But that still doesn't let Lavar off the hook. Bottom line is that Lavar's not a rookie and he should know to keep it to himself in a situation like this.

One consolation for me is that this doesn't appear to be a nationally recogized issue. Sports radio in Boston made no mention of this at all as far as I can tell. My freinds haven't said anything either. Which is a relief. I've caught enought crap throughout the past 10 or so years.

[Jake]

Oh my God. Not good.

After a Shove, a Fall From Grace

By Mike Wise

Friday, December 30, 2005; Page E01

What in all likelihood was LaVar Arrington's last day in the home locker room after a regular season game at FedEx Field featured an ugly shouting match in the training room with his position coach, Dale Lindsey. Arrington had grown tired of Lindsey, the linebackers coach, calling him from upstairs in the booth, berating him for missed assignments in a victory over the New York Giants on Saturday.

He finally hung up on Lindsey, and the feud carried over into the locker room, growing more profane and personal. It ended with Arrington telling Lindsey to "Back off!" and "Treat me like a man!" According to two persons privy to the altercation, the coach went a tad more overboard than the player.


Once the face of the franchise, LaVar Arrington, far left, has been on the outside looking in this season. "The town never turned on me," he said. "They were always behind me. It was individuals." (By Toni L. Sandys -- The Washington Post)

"I was thinking, 'Enough already,' " said one player, on condition of anonymity. "Let LaVar be."

What a fitting send-off for Arrington, the guy who carried Daniel Snyder's banner during the lean years. Beautiful. Way to emotionally beat down a proud, sentimental veteran whose only real character flaw was that he stubbornly believed enough in this organization to want to retire here.

This town is a win from going absolutely ga-ga over Joe Gibbs's team again. Beat the Eagles on Sunday and Gibbs secures a postseason berth for Washington for the first time since 1999. "Ten and six" must sound so much better than 6-10 to the true zealot. What a phenomenal, 12-month turnabout that would be.

But let's not forget the marginalization of Arrington, the franchise's most popular player of the new millennium. The spin being put out on Arrington's latest comments is frankly amazing. Many are ripping the guy who told the Washington Times this week that management didn't want him, that he was most likely done in Washington. People are treating Arrington as if he were a T.O. clone, creating controversy, stirring the pot on the brink of the franchise's most important game in years.

No one is talking about how in two humiliating years, Mr. Redskin was callously turned into Mr. Irrelevant.

Hampered by injury and the lack of confidence his coaches have in him, Arrington rarely plays on third and fourth downs anymore. On many Sunday afternoons, when the opposing offense is facing a third and long, Arrington sits. Never mind that he is bigger and faster than Fred Dean was lining up at defensive end for the great 49ers teams of the 1980s, Arrington's pass-rushing skills are somehow deemed too insignificant to help a blitzing, aggressive defense.

When Arrington is given a fair amount of snaps, the masses are informed that it has nothing to do with Arrington playing the way that earned him two Pro Bowl selections. No, they say LaVar got religion, believed in the principles of defensive coach Gregg Williams's system, finally put in the rehab and film time needed to be rewarded with more playing opportunities.

Arrington was asked about a moment he thought his career changed in Washington. He was reminded of a Wizards game last season. His face was flashed on the overhead video scoreboard and was greeted by intermittent boos. He was taking the heat for his team's dismal season. After the game, Arrington waited patiently as the crowd filed out. He had arranged to get a pair of signed shoes from a visiting NBA player. MCI Center security guards would not let him back near the locker rooms. The most popular athlete in town was treated like a deranged fan demanding to be let in the locker room for an autograph.

Arrington got angry and emotional before his future wife calmed him down. The next day, he canceled his season tickets. Was his love affair with Washington already dying?

"No, the town never turned on me," he said, sitting in front of his locker at the team's practice facility in Ashburn on Wednesday. "They were always behind me. It was individuals. That's all I'm going to say."

He won't say who, but we already know where and with whom the enmity began. Snyder, the team owner who made him fabulously rich and befriended his charismatic, handsome linebacking star, dumped him quicker than AOL stock. From the moment Arrington filed a contract grievance in March 2004, contending the team omitted $6.5 million in bonus money agreed upon for the 2006 season, he was shuttled out of Snyder' suite and sent to the doghouse. The Redskins said they did not owe Arrington the money, and the linebacker eventually dropped the arbitration case.

But with Snyder no longer in his corner, it became open season on Arrington for the coaching staff.

When Arrington was hardly playing in late September and early October this season, he saw Snyder in a hallway and was about to offer some pleasantries. "Don't talk to me," the owner said, according to a person who saw the encounter. "I didn't have anything to do with this."

When Gibbs and his coaching staff took over the team two years ago, they did not consider Arrington to be part of the solution to the franchise's woes; they saw him as another impediment. They believed Arrington could not curb his individualism for the good of the team. They never got around the perception that he could not fit in. They saw Arrington as a nuisance -- a high-maintenance, high-salaried star who could never live up to his Pro Bowl aura or reputation.

As effective and bright as the team's coaches are, they decided who Arrington was and what he was about before they gave him a chance to see what he could become. And when he finally showed them his worth, his body betrayed him again. He played only two full games last season and missed 12 games with a bone bruise.

The injury cost Arrington a shot at proving his worth to Williams and his staff. They moved on and inserted lesser-known players, and the defense turned in one of its best years in recent memory. Returning from offseason knee surgery robbed him of his explosiveness this season. He wasn't their cup of tea to begin with, and his ailments made it that much easier to cast him aside.

Arrington's representatives asked that they be allowed to speak with other teams about a possible trade early this season, but were rebuffed both times. Now, it wouldn't be a surprise if the team waited until mid-July to cut him, after every other franchise has run out of salary-cap room.

Was Arrington also to blame for this pending divorce between player and team? No doubt. He is an emotionally deep, feeling person. If he was being honest with himself, Arrington would admit he took things too personally, internalized every slight, felt his loyalty and accomplishments before Gibbs was hired were completely overlooked by the new regime.

He hated the perception that he was only a freelancing, headhunter, unable to coexist in a defense built on elaborate schemes that demands on-field discipline from its players. It made him look book-smart and system-dumb.

But when your face stops appearing in the team's marketing campaigns, when they don't restock your jersey in the team store until the demand becomes overwhelming, when the assistant gets in your face like you're the walk-on, the writing is on the wall.

Crazy, no? Most people in the organization believe they learned to win without Arrington. They have no idea that they won in spite of how they treated him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01331.html

[1niksder]

Oh my God. Not good.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01331.html

I didn't see this coming

WHo let the cat out of the bag? and What will Gibbs do to them when he finds them?... Next Week

[tcwest10]

Oh, crap. This is not good at all.

[ChrisHanburger]

Oh my God. Not good.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01331.html

I didn't see this coming

WHo let the cat out of the bag? and What will Gibbs do to them when he finds them?... Next Week

Not good. Not good at all. But still not that much of a deal. Arrington has been a minor factor in the team's recent sucess. It sounds like Lindsey's a William's protege who busts balls and motivates through intimidation which Lavar doesn't like. Maybe Lindsey went overboard in that encounter, but anyone who's coached before knows that things can build up and individual encounters can seem out of control when taken out of context.

Lavar has been used to being the big fish in a small pond. Problem is? The ponds a bit bigger now.

I say we move on. I bet the coaches and most of the team are....

[1niksder]

Oh my God. Not good.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01331.html

I didn't see this coming

WHo let the cat out of the bag? and What will Gibbs do to them when he finds them?... Next Week

Not good. Not good at all. But still not that much of a deal. Arrington has been a minor factor in the team's recent sucess. It sounds like Lindsey's a William's protege who busts balls and motivates through intimidation which Lavar doesn't like. Maybe Lindsey went overboard in that encounter, but anyone who's coached before knows that things can build up and individual encounters can seem out of control when taken out of context.

Lavar has been used to being the big fish in a small pond. Problem is? The ponds a bit bigger now.

I say we move on. I bet the coaches and most of the team are....

This would explain the timing of the Effin article to some extent

[Chris Luva Luva]

Man...

All I can do is laugh. "Let Lavar be..." -anynonomus.

Screw Lavar. If he's blowing assignments then he needs to get beaten just like everyone else. This isn't playtime with Spurrier.

I can see why the coaches would be irritated with him. Right now, I dont care what they do with Lavar. He doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut.

[ChrisHanburger]

I'm doin' the Luva Luva dance .... Agree perfetly

[Chris Luva Luva]

I'm doin' the Luva Luva dance right now...

Its good luck, trust me.

[ChrisHanburger]

Ive heard.

[hailskins666]

Oh my God. Not good.

After a Shove, a Fall From Grace

By Mike Wise

Friday, December 30, 2005; Page E01

What in all likelihood was LaVar Arrington's last day in the home locker room after a regular season game at FedEx Field featured an ugly shouting match in the training room with his position coach, Dale Lindsey. Arrington had grown tired of Lindsey, the linebackers coach, calling him from upstairs in the booth, berating him for missed assignments in a victory over the New York Giants on Saturday.

He finally hung up on Lindsey, and the feud carried over into the locker room, growing more profane and personal. It ended with Arrington telling Lindsey to "Back off!" and "Treat me like a man!" According to two persons privy to the altercation, the coach went a tad more overboard than the player.


Once the face of the franchise, LaVar Arrington, far left, has been on the outside looking in this season. "The town never turned on me," he said. "They were always behind me. It was individuals." (By Toni L. Sandys -- The Washington Post)

"I was thinking, 'Enough already,' " said one player, on condition of anonymity. "Let LaVar be."

What a fitting send-off for Arrington, the guy who carried Daniel Snyder's banner during the lean years. Beautiful. Way to emotionally beat down a proud, sentimental veteran whose only real character flaw was that he stubbornly believed enough in this organization to want to retire here.

This town is a win from going absolutely ga-ga over Joe Gibbs's team again. Beat the Eagles on Sunday and Gibbs secures a postseason berth for Washington for the first time since 1999. "Ten and six" must sound so much better than 6-10 to the true zealot. What a phenomenal, 12-month turnabout that would be.

But let's not forget the marginalization of Arrington, the franchise's most popular player of the new millennium. The spin being put out on Arrington's latest comments is frankly amazing. Many are ripping the guy who told the Washington Times this week that management didn't want him, that he was most likely done in Washington. People are treating Arrington as if he were a T.O. clone, creating controversy, stirring the pot on the brink of the franchise's most important game in years.

No one is talking about how in two humiliating years, Mr. Redskin was callously turned into Mr. Irrelevant.

Hampered by injury and the lack of confidence his coaches have in him, Arrington rarely plays on third and fourth downs anymore. On many Sunday afternoons, when the opposing offense is facing a third and long, Arrington sits. Never mind that he is bigger and faster than Fred Dean was lining up at defensive end for the great 49ers teams of the 1980s, Arrington's pass-rushing skills are somehow deemed too insignificant to help a blitzing, aggressive defense.

When Arrington is given a fair amount of snaps, the masses are informed that it has nothing to do with Arrington playing the way that earned him two Pro Bowl selections. No, they say LaVar got religion, believed in the principles of defensive coach Gregg Williams's system, finally put in the rehab and film time needed to be rewarded with more playing opportunities.

Arrington was asked about a moment he thought his career changed in Washington. He was reminded of a Wizards game last season. His face was flashed on the overhead video scoreboard and was greeted by intermittent boos. He was taking the heat for his team's dismal season. After the game, Arrington waited patiently as the crowd filed out. He had arranged to get a pair of signed shoes from a visiting NBA player. MCI Center security guards would not let him back near the locker rooms. The most popular athlete in town was treated like a deranged fan demanding to be let in the locker room for an autograph.

Arrington got angry and emotional before his future wife calmed him down. The next day, he canceled his season tickets. Was his love affair with Washington already dying?

"No, the town never turned on me," he said, sitting in front of his locker at the team's practice facility in Ashburn on Wednesday. "They were always behind me. It was individuals. That's all I'm going to say."

He won't say who, but we already know where and with whom the enmity began. Snyder, the team owner who made him fabulously rich and befriended his charismatic, handsome linebacking star, dumped him quicker than AOL stock. From the moment Arrington filed a contract grievance in March 2004, contending the team omitted $6.5 million in bonus money agreed upon for the 2006 season, he was shuttled out of Snyder' suite and sent to the doghouse. The Redskins said they did not owe Arrington the money, and the linebacker eventually dropped the arbitration case.

But with Snyder no longer in his corner, it became open season on Arrington for the coaching staff.

When Arrington was hardly playing in late September and early October this season, he saw Snyder in a hallway and was about to offer some pleasantries. "Don't talk to me," the owner said, according to a person who saw the encounter. "I didn't have anything to do with this."

When Gibbs and his coaching staff took over the team two years ago, they did not consider Arrington to be part of the solution to the franchise's woes; they saw him as another impediment. They believed Arrington could not curb his individualism for the good of the team. They never got around the perception that he could not fit in. They saw Arrington as a nuisance -- a high-maintenance, high-salaried star who could never live up to his Pro Bowl aura or reputation.

As effective and bright as the team's coaches are, they decided who Arrington was and what he was about before they gave him a chance to see what he could become. And when he finally showed them his worth, his body betrayed him again. He played only two full games last season and missed 12 games with a bone bruise.

The injury cost Arrington a shot at proving his worth to Williams and his staff. They moved on and inserted lesser-known players, and the defense turned in one of its best years in recent memory. Returning from offseason knee surgery robbed him of his explosiveness this season. He wasn't their cup of tea to begin with, and his ailments made it that much easier to cast him aside.

Arrington's representatives asked that they be allowed to speak with other teams about a possible trade early this season, but were rebuffed both times. Now, it wouldn't be a surprise if the team waited until mid-July to cut him, after every other franchise has run out of salary-cap room.

Was Arrington also to blame for this pending divorce between player and team? No doubt. He is an emotionally deep, feeling person. If he was being honest with himself, Arrington would admit he took things too personally, internalized every slight, felt his loyalty and accomplishments before Gibbs was hired were completely overlooked by the new regime.

He hated the perception that he was only a freelancing, headhunter, unable to coexist in a defense built on elaborate schemes that demands on-field discipline from its players. It made him look book-smart and system-dumb.

But when your face stops appearing in the team's marketing campaigns, when they don't restock your jersey in the team store until the demand becomes overwhelming, when the assistant gets in your face like you're the walk-on, the writing is on the wall.

Crazy, no? Most people in the organization believe they learned to win without Arrington. They have no idea that they won in spite of how they treated him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01331.html

so basically this article says that gibbs is running this team not snyder...... whats the problem?

the first thing that gibbs said when he got here was, don't embarass yourself or the redskins. i'm not saying that these things arent taken out of context by the media, but every headline i remember lavar being in for the last two years has been 'embarassing' ones, both to him personally, and to the team as a whole.

[gay4pacman]

LaVar is embarassing the team right now!

[UK Skins Fan]

I'm now officially sick and tired of reading about Lavar Arrington. This week, the Redskins play their most important game in years, and this is all these goons in the media have to talk about?

Let's win football games on the field, and then have a nice chat about Lavar next offseason, just like we always do.

[DEHog]

What are we so afriad of?? I fell for this once with Bailey. LA is the highest LB in the game and right now he is a liability to this team. There was only one answer to Elfing questions this....All I'm thinking about is Philly" is the only thing that should have come out of LA mouth this week. Even ST had enough sense to say that when Andrea Kramer came looking for a story. I knew this would blow up. The Skins will still win on Sunday and LA we see very little time.

Oh and LA you say the city has never turned on you...stay tuned!!

[tcwest10]

So basically this article says that gibbs is running this team not snyder...... whats the problem ?

The problem, big guy, is the timing. We've got a 4 game win streak on. The superstitious say, " Never mess with a win streak."
Lavar is seriously messing with it. It could conceivably affect the chemistry.
What ? It could happen ! We're the Redskins, remember ?