NFL Sober Coach?
Player arrested for fighting in his” free” time.
It always amazes me that the 4 week segment of time that is considered ‘free’ time by the NFL simply is so unstructured. You take a bunch of testosterone laden athletes, give them a huge paycheck and expect them to behave? Owners pay millions of dollars to their ‘investment’ and allow that ‘purchase’ to roam free. I thought they were smarter then that. The Rams are in the headlines again with Dunbar.
For the second consecutive season, St. Louis Rams linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar has made headlines for the wrong reasons near the start of training camp. Reports from The Associated Press indicate that Dunbar was involved in a fight outside a Miami nightclub early Sunday morning. Dunbar got into an altercation with NBA free-agent forward Donte Greene outside Dream Nightclub, according to Miami Beach Police Detective Vivian Thayer, who said both men were arrested and will face charges of battery and disorderly conduct.
With further details unavailable at this time, this could be nothing deeper than a fight between a couple of athletes. But in Dunbar’s case, it’s not this incident that is alarming so much as the unsightly pattern that has begun to form when it comes to him and off-field incidents near the start of training camp. The Rams have seemingly made it through the scariest part of the offseason without any serious issues, and while a fight doesn’t really qualify, it does add another negative mark on Dunbar’s record as the team opens camp this week. Last year, Dunbar entered camp as a presumptive starter at outside linebacker, but those plans took a U-turn when the NFL suspended him four games for violation of its policy against performance-enhancing substances. A clearly irritated coach Jeff Fisher made it clear he was unhappy with Dunbar, and instead of keeping him on the roster during the suspension, the Rams released him and signed veteran linebacker Will Witherspoon.
Dunbar re-signed for the rest of the 2013 season after serving the suspension but came back to reduced snaps with Alec Ogletree handling three-down duty alongside James Laurinaitis. Dunbar finished with 39 tackles in 12 games and 10 starts.
Despite the underwhelming season, in March the Rams brought Dunbar back on a two-year deal worth up to $3.5 million with hopes that reuniting him with defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who coached Dunbar in New Orleans, could get him back on track.
While more information needs to be gathered and the legal process still has to play out, Dunbar is obviously not doing himself any favors as he attempts to hold down the starting job opposite Ogletree. As it stands, Dunbar is projected to remain the starter, but second-year linebacker Ray-Ray Armstrong has impressed coaches enough to get more opportunities to contribute and was already poised to push for an expanded role in 2014.
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