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Robby Anderson was arrested for the second time in eight months.
“Robby Anderson faces a slew of charges in Florida, including threatening a police officer’s family and saying he would rape the officer’s wife,” wrote the Associated Press. “A Sunrise police report shows the 24-year-old Anderson was stopped early Friday in a sport utility vehicle after it ran two red lights and was swerving while traveling about 105 mph in a 45 mph zone. After he was stopped, police say he made the threats and then boasted about how much money he has. Jail records show Anderson faces nine charges, including threatening harm to a public servant, resisting arrest and traffic violations. Anderson was arrested in May at a musical festival in Miami Beach. He was charged with resisting arrest with violence, a felony. He’s still awaiting trial, which is scheduled for March 19.”
This guy clear has issues, and I write that with no disrespect intended. And now you can understand a little better why a guy this talented went undrafted out of Temple. Remember, as a junior, he quit the team at Temple and went home.
And when I say he needs help, I’m not talking about meetings with Todd Bowles – those haven’t work. There have been plenty of them. Like when Bowles met with Anderson after he threw his helmet after a loss to the Dolphins in late October.
“We don’t condone anything like that,” Bowles said. “We don’t tolerate anything like that. It won’t happen again. He just needs to find a better way to handle his frustration and he will.”
Perhaps not. In Week 17, he spiked the ball on the Patriots’ sideline, and the ball hit New England cornerback Johnson Bademosi in the facemask. There was no flag, but NFL head official Al Riveron said that Anderson’s spike was a textbook case of taunting.
Bowles talks with Robby aren’t working. He needs professional help. Bowles isn’t a professionally trained counselor to handle whatever Robby is dealing with. The problems on display here are above a coach’s pay-grade.
Will the Jets move on from him? Probably not. He’s one of their best players, and they don’t have many difference-makers. Anderson is a difference-maker.
Most NFL teams have a caste system when it comes to discipline. If you can help them, you get more lifelines.
On May 4, 2013, the Jets cut linebacker Claude Davis and cornerback Cliff Harris a day after they were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana.
There you go. Two long-shot undrafted free agents gone one day after they were arrested, and before their court date.
Just like the Jets aren’t moving on from cornerback Rashard Robinson, who was arrested in New Jersey in December for possessing a marijuana-laced candy called Peanut Budda Buddah. He also got thrown out of LSU.
Why not release Robinson? First of all, he has the potential to be a very good NFL cornerback with improved technique – he’s a great athlete with length, speed and flexibility. Secondly, the Jets traded a 2018 fifth-round pick mid-season to San Francisco to him, so if they released him, it would made their GM look bad, so Robinson isn’t going anywhere.
We heard so much during the season how the Jets improved their football culture in 2017, and they certainly did.
But clearly they have a lot more work to do.
Like I wrote in the latest issue of Jets Confidential Magazine, Mike Maccagnan needs to stop the “Father Flanagan” personnel moves, trying to take guys with issues, and turn their lives around.
Stick to the Jamal Adams-Marcus Maye blueprint – pick good football player who have their act together.
January 19, 2017
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