[sportscurmudgeon]

Let's imagine for just a minute what the "tough guy chat" would be with Coles and his agent:


Redskins: Listen up you overpaid and disgruntled lump of shit, you are under contract here and we'll tell you when you play and if we trade you we'll tell you where you play. WE call the plays; you run the routes. Cabeesh? If you don't like it, you can stick it up your butt.

Coles and Agent: (stifiling laughter) You got it boss. I can report to all your mandatory practices and camps and collect that fat $5M you owe me in April and after we cash that puppy and invest it, we might just come down with chronic migraines and have a recurrence of that toe injury. How's that gonna help you get anything for me in a trade? When any other GM calls me to talk to me about going there in a trade, I'm gonna tell him that my toe hurts and that I think his team is made up of the biggest bundh of pus-suckers in the league and that I don't want to play there. How will that help your negotiation stance? Or are you going to try and tell me what I can and cannot say to another GM in the league?

Redskins: Our doctors will see to it that you don't get away with that...

Coles and Agent: (not able to stifle laughter any longer) Your doctors can suck wind. I'll get three or four different medical opinions that say your doctors are team toadies and should not be allowed to practice on chimpanzees let alone humans. And by the way, while all these medical experts are debating, I'll be missing training camp but you still have me as a cap hit. You don't think that these medical issues can be resolved quickly do you? I figure my "problem" will last at least as long as Lavar's grievance has lasted. He played three games last year; I can do that too.

Redskins: But we pay the bills so we are the boss. And remember, Mr, Snyder can fire anyone he wants to any time he wants to.

Coles and Agent: Please fire us. Please do that today. That means we keep your $5M AND we get to make our own deal somewhere else - the recovery from the headaches and the foot injury will be miraculous - and nobody else in the league has to deal with Mr, Snyder and any of the other idiots in your Front Office. WE get a better deal and you get ZIPPO for cutting us. Go ahead. Carry through with that threat you impotent sack of weasel shit...


SIMMARY: It's nice to think about talking tough to LC. But unless you are willing to cut him, then don't overplay your hand because it just might piss him off and that would be even worse than cutting him and getting nothing for him.

Remember, he can hold out and since there is an existing contract the Skins have to be prepared for him to report back to them so there are cap implications AND as long as he reports by the 10th game, it counts as if he honored the contract for the year. Talk about a "distraction".