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I’m Not Sure How the NFL Sleeps at Night
By Jamie Mottram | October 31, 2008
Ryan Clark’s story is a good one. Undrafted out of LSU, he latched on as a special teamer with the Giants and worked his way into their defensive backfield before coming to Washington via free agency. He spent two seasons with the Skins, starting 24 games at safety, 22 of them alongside Sean Taylor. In 2006, Washington failed to make Clark an offer, so he accepted a starting job with the Super Bowl champion Steelers. Despite having his spleen removed last year and losing 30 pounds, he remains the starting safety for them now as they come to D.C., where the Burgundy & Gold faithful remember him well.
And he remembers his time with the Burgundy & Gold, especially his time spent as a friend and mentor to Sean Taylor. As Jason La Canfora reported a year ago, “Ryan Clark was probably Sean Taylor’s closest friend during their two years together on the Washington Redskins.” Clark’s loss must have been profound last November, and likely remains so now. To wit, he wears a 21 jersey in practice and last Sunday wrote a Shockey-esque “21″ on his eye black to honor Taylor. And the NFL fined him five stacks for it.
Clark says he’ll continue wearing the 21 eye black, as he should if he damn well pleases. And the NFL may continue fining him for it, as it should if it wants to die of gonorrhea and rot in hell.
(Story found via FanHouse. Sports by Brooks has a good take on it as well.)
Topics: Douchebags, NFL, Redskins, Sean Taylor | 9 Comments »
October 31st, 2008 at 12:19 PM
He tried to officially change his # to 21 in the offseason, and the NFL denied his request. That’s just fucked. Fucked.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Nice Ace Ventura reference.
Yea if it wasn’t for Chris Horton I’d be more upset about us letting him go. What a solid guy that we could have signed to a sensible contract.
…not Danny’s style.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:26 PM
pathetic. this is why players just say “fuckit” and pay the fine. They can afford to do what they want, especially when it’s so minor. This is just creating a lack of respect for the NFL office. This has “lockout” written all over it. Not this per say, but “lack of respect” claims start small like this.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:39 PM
omgwtfbbg is right, and that is fucked. Here’s the story.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Shit. I hope the NFL doesn’t find out about my living room.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:57 PM
Okay, but the thing about Ryan Clark being fined is: the money goes to charity.
Now, I’m not saying the NFL isn’t being douchetastic in regard to Clark’s intentions, but, in the end, it all sort of works out nicely, if not circuitously, much like this sentence.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:59 PM
Despite being rampant clownboots, I’m sure they sleep comfortably on stacks of money surrounded by hookers and X-Box 360s.
October 31st, 2008 at 2:12 PM
I’m glad the money goes to charity, but does Clark get to pick it? Does it go to the trust fund set up for his daughter (http://www.redskins.com/gen/articles/Sean_Taylor_Tribute_516.jsp) which I can’t seem to find a link to. Or does it go to pay for the Gene Upshaw patches for each uniform. fuckers…
November 1st, 2008 at 6:13 PM
Weren’t CP and ST fined for unauthorized socks? And didn’t they say they would happily pay the fine? And didn’t the (pre-Goodell-commissioned) NFL threaten them with suspensions? This story does not have a happy ending… er, a good outcome… fuck it.