The Su'a Cravens saga has been one of the stranger stories of the young NFL season. The safety went from active NFL starter to out of the league in just days, with mysterious circumstances keeping fans and others in the dark to this day. For now, his playing career with the Washington Redskins is on hold. He seems to believe it will resume once again, but perhaps he shouldn't be so sure. Even if he plays in the NFL again, it would be a major shock to see Cravens suit up for Washington ever again.
The Cravens saga
Just a week before the season was set to begin, the confusion set in.
Cravens suddenly went from the team's starting safety to a player more interested in ending his entire career. The announcement was completely unexpected. In fact, the team convinced Cravens to hold off on filing his retirement papers to prevent a rushed decision. He was initially placed on the exempt list, but the Redskins eventually moved him to the reserve/left squad list, ending his season with the team.
Outside of the involved parties, nobody knows why Cravens made the decision he did. There is plenty of speculation that it had to do with personal reasons, but there has been no confirmation of that, nor will there be anytime soon. On Saturday, however, he claimed that he aims to be back on the football field next year.
He shouldn't count on that happening in Washington, though.
Washington's case for moving on
In most cases, NFL teams don't want to deal with players who become a distraction, for one reason or another. Cravens would fit that bill, especially considering how he hadn't yet made a major impact at the professional level. Teams don't always lose patience with their stars, but they do with their less heralded players.
Washington is likely to move on from the distraction and search for an easier solution at the safety spot.
Part of it is also a trust issue. There's a similar issue unfolding in Miami right now, where Dolphins linebacker Lawrence Timmons unexpectedly went AWOL before his team's opener last weekend. Since then, the team has uncomfortably tried to figure out how to incorporate him back onto the team with some unresolved circumstances still running about.
It has proven to be the main storyline for that team since the season started, outside of the hurricanes that have wreaked havoc. The Redskins want no part of this controversy, even if that means saying a permanent goodbye to Cravens.
