WPost Email: Jansen, Arrington Watch Helplessly

Matty:


Examples of irrational leaders might be:

Jim Jones
David Koresh
Adolf Hitler
Charles Manson

How exactly did you get these guys worked in to a comparison of leadership styles with LaVar Arrington, who is just a football player as you say?

A little bit of an irrational comparison in my opinion, or perhaps an overexaggeration?

Yeah I don't get how you compare LaVar to Hitler, Manson et al.

LaVar takes losing to heart. In this day and age where you see losing players laughing and chatting it up with the opposing players after a game, it's good to see that LaVar has a real emotional investment in the outcome of the game, and he takes it personally when he sees opponents having fun at his and his teammates' expense.

I think any ultra-competitive person knows how much it hurts to lose; how it can make your blood boil to the point that you feel like you could explode [/exaggeration]. LaVar's expressiveness about that pain and anger naturally takes on a hyperbolic tone by virtue of how much he really cares. I think that's a positive thing, and I hope his teammates feel the same way.

Heck, Dick Vermeil cries all the time, but I don't think you'd find anyone in the organizations he's been associated with that would say he's an irrational or poor leader. That kind of passion is precisely what makes a leader great, in my opinion. It inspires a passionate response in those around them.

Speaking of Vermeil I know people make fun of him, personally I think he's great. I'd love to play for a guy like that.

As for LaVar I don't have a problem with him getting emotional over losing. In fact I wish we had an entire team full of LaVars.

Nice post by the way, Joe.

Let me call time out here for a moment.

I did not say that LaVar Arrington had ANYTHING in common with Hitler or Charles Manson or any other people on my list of irrational leaders. What I said was that rrational leaders usually are "cult figures" and they usually don't wind up in a good place. That was an explanation as to why reasonable and credibile and rational leadership was important and valuable. So in case anyone still misunderstands:

1. Hitler, Manson, Jones and Koresh were BAD leaders and probably BAD people at heart.

2. LaVar Arrington is NOT a BAD person at heart and so far has not shown enough leadership skills for us to know if he is skilled at that or not.


It is fine for him to react emotionally to losing a football game. After all, he gets paid to win football games; football is probably what he has spent more time on than anyuthing else in his life. But it begins to stretch credibility when he says that this was one of the worst things he's ever had to endure - - especialy when he says virtually the same thing every Monday on the radio after the Skins lose. And doubly expecially because he's been through enough of these horrendous times to begin to put them into perspective as a rational and thinking adult.

What I said was that losing a football game is not pleasant but there are tragedies that fall into people's lives that are so significantly greater than losing a football game that it makes LaVar sound either irrational or shallow or self-absorbed or whatever for him to say that over and over again.

I know that LaVar Arrington is a fine football player and therefore it behooves all Redskin fans to want to believe that everything he does and says is noble in its intent and gracious. Unfortunatelly that is not always the case.

I'll go out on a limb here and draw another analogy. Buffalo Bills fans adored OJ and many of them never wanted to believe that he could ever do something that was dastardly or destructive. Same with Panther fans and Rae Carruth. But "stuff" happens.

NOTE: I did NOT say LaVar is or ever will be involved in a murder situation nor do I think there is much of chance that he will. What I am trying to illustrate is that people who are good athletes tend to be turned into heroic figures that can do and say no wrong by adoring fans. But in the real world, sometimes the fans are - horribly - wrong.

SC,

I think I understand what you're saying about hearing the same thing over and over again from LaVar. Every offseason it's "this is our year. I really believe it" then once the season rolls around it's "I can't stand seeing us lose, I wish I could turn things around" And of course, so far he nor anyone else has.

But I don't think he's being insincere when he speaks. And I'm not sure what it is you want him to say? I suppose he could just say nothing. Or is that you want him to say "So what, it's just football"?

Look, when LaVar is being asked these questions the reality is that the reporters are not asking Lavar the person, they're asking LaVar the football player. And for LaVar the football player going through another year of losing has to be one of the worst things he's had to endure. And especially this year because he's not there in the trenches, as they say, with his teammates. So Lavar the football player is going to get emotional but that doesn't mean he's irrational and unaware of the bigger issues that define LaVar the person.

To me, LaVar talks a lot like we do as fans. He's very passionate and he's forever optimistic in the offseason. Personally I like that about him. He also strikes me as a very genuine person. Perhaps I'm a sucker, I dunno.

I would take a team full of guys like Lavar (or Smoot, or Thrash for that matter) that would go out every week and play thier heart out and take it personally when they lose. These guys are playing the game they love, not just going to work. You can't coach the passion that these guys feel for the game.

I agree that Lavar may over-do it in the interviews and I'm sure he isn't always the perfect citizen. Still, I'm glad that he is passionate about the game. Also, it is important to remember that he is not on TV being interviewed about his personal thoughts and opinions outside of football. Maybe, just maybe, he understands they want his emotions concerning football when the football show interviews him (not tax advice or political views). Maybe he also has learned to keep his personal life as far away from these interviews as possible...

work is one of the leading causes of stress... especially when things aren't going well and/or you feel helpless... for him it is tough, because i don't think he's ever had an injury this bad, and he's never had the experience of not being able to participate in a #1 before either...

Its just Lavar, take it with a grain of salt or however you like, but when he says "it's one of the thoughest things i've gone through" as a football player being interviewed, he really means "it's one of the toughest things i've ever gone through in football"

Jansen and Arrington are REDSKIN kinda guys joe gibbs is looking for........

GET WELL SOON and hurry back GUYS!