Face of the Franchise
Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2004 6:54 am
Redskins Arrington after more than recognition
His name, folks, is LaVar. Try to get it right.
Of course there are more common monikers, but this one's hardly a tongue-twister.
Fortunately, LaVar will cut you some slack. And when a man is 6-foot-2 and 253 pounds and could turn you into a lumpy pancake, it's good to have some slack there.
Practice has ended and a strong rain has transformed the football fields to pudding. The Washington Redskins' uniforms look like they've been dipped into the Potomac.
LaVar Arrington takes off his soggy shoes and socks and hands them to some fans sprinkled behind a waist-high fence. He can't be in any mood to sign autographs. Still, he gets a quick kiss from his beautiful girlfriend and stops at the nearest pen.
"It's just something you have to do when you're this famous," the all-pro linebacker says with a shrug.
But LaVar doesn't have to do anything of the sort. Plenty of pro athletes would've stomped past the crowd and hit the showers on a day like this. Not LaVar.
Fans tell LaVar how their friend's cousin once lived down the street from him, and he shows interest. They tell LaVar they saw him at a steakhouse a few years back, and he nods.
"Hey, LAMAR!" a middle-aged man blurts. "You're my favorite player. How about an autograph?"
Arrington's neck tilts a little and his face creases. Michael Jordan was never called Mark. Joe Montana was never called John.
"It's LaVar," Arrington says calmly. "My name is LaVar."
Arrington signs the man's football.
He tells jokes. He waits patiently as wives try to work their husbands' cameras. He scrawls his signature over and over.
When a Redskins official says the team bus is leaving in 15 minutes, Arrington gallops toward the locker room. Then he passes a group of fans in wheelchairs. They're holding footballs and pictures. Arrington stops and signs and makes their faces glow before he finally disappears.
"Once you're around the tradition and you see what the Washington Redskins are all about," he says, "I think you get a good idea what you have to do to represent the burgundy and gold the right way."
Arrington realizes that he's become the story in this storied franchise.On game days, his No. 56 jersey covers the backs and bellies of fans throughout FedEx Field. Redskins coaches say Arrington's the one rookies gravitate toward. Opposing quarterbacks always want to know where he's lined up.
"He's feared around the league," says Redskins linebacker Marcus Washington, who spent the last four seasons with the Indianapolis Colts. "He gets respect from offenses because he has the ability to take over a game."
In one sense, this all makes Arrington so proud. At the same time, though, he's frustrated and embarrassed. The Redskins have yet to have a winning season on his four-year watch.
Arrington feels responsible.
He feels that all of his spine-rattling tackles--396 in four seasons, to be exact--should've gotten the Redskins somewhere by now. He feels that his three trips to the Pro Bowl should've meant something more.
"This team's had a lot of growing pains," Arrington says. "But nobody grows up without obstacles and hardships."
Arrington feels that those obstacles might finally be cleared. The legendary Joe Gibbs is back as the Redskins' head coach. Score-stopping mastermind Gregg Williams is now in charge of the defense. Michael Barrow and Washington have been brought in to strengthen the linebacking corps.
This season Arrington is being switched from strong-side linebacker to weak-side. That means he'll line up away from the other team's tight end, and will thus be afforded better pass-rushing chances.
"LaVar's got to take the next step or two in doing what we want done in the pressure game," Williams says. "We'd hope this is his best year because of how we're going to use him."
It's an opportunity Arrington is looking forward to, and not just because he might dump the quarterback a few more times. He thinks it'll help the Redskins win a few more games, and maybe a division crown. Heck, if all goes well, maybe even a Super Bowl.
Arrington wants all distractions put aside, his own included. He signed a nine-year, $68 million contract extension with the Redskins last December. Since the team was scurrying to meet a salary-cap deadline, the deal was completed hastily, and Arrington says it's missing a $6.5 million signing bonus that's due in 2006.
The case is headed to arbitration, but Arrington has shown no desire to stand on a soapbox and carp during camp. He hasn't said a word about the situation. He wants to focus on football.
"I think this is the first year that I'm not tolerating anything but everybody giving their best," Arrington says. "This is not going to be a waste of my time or [my teammates'] time anymore. I'm not going to tolerate it."
He's been his usual whiz-bang self on the field this August, chasing after quarterbacks and pumping up his defensive cohorts.
"LaVar is a monster on the field," Redskins defensive end Regan Upshaw says. "There's nothing he can't do out there. Sometimes I just sit back and watch."
It's an impressive sight. Few possess the combination of speed and power and strength coiled so neatly into a superhero's frame.
But that athleticism has always been there. It's the belief that's been instilled in Arrington, a belief that he's trying to forge in his teammates, that has the linebacker so hopeful. He's waited for this feeling for four long years.
"We've struggled here," Arrington says. "When that turnaround takes place, I'll be so happy that I'll probably be crying. People won't be able to stop me from crying."
His name, folks, is LaVar. Beneath his burgundy helmet, you'll find the face of the Washington Redskins.
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/ ... 04/1457104
