After running a few errands on Thursday afternoon, I came home and, as I usually do when I'm puttering around the house, I turned on the John Riggins show. Among the topics of discussion—still—was Fred Davis.
It's been a while since the incident involving Davis took place, so allow me to refresh your memory. Last Sunday, he overslept and missed a 9:30 AM practice. That's it.
He wasn't out driving (or boating) drunk. He didn't get into a fight with another man or hit a woman. He wasn't making it rain, he wasn't failing a drug test. No ballistics tests were being done to determine if a weapon he owned had been involved in a shooting.
I found it to be somewhat surprising that they were still talking about it on Tuesday. I don't know if they were still beating the dead horse on Wednesday, but they were on Thursday. And I'm not talking about a few gags sprinkled throughout the show. It was an entire segment, teased beforehand.
The segment itself was amusingly annoying. Riggins, who played in the days before there was saturation media coverage, didn't understand why the Redskins let word of Davis' absence "get out".
Evidently it's been a while since Riggo has been to an NFL practice. Beat reporters go out to the field armed with a numerical roster. As they see each player, they check him off of the list. Absentees are noted and, if someone on the PR staff is available, that person is questioned about the missing player or players. After practice, the coaches are questioned about them.
In Davis' case, Jim Zorn could have made something up or he could have told the truth. At the end of Sunday's practice, they didn't know where Davis was. Since the truth has a way of coming out at some point regardless, the best thing for Zorn to do was say that Davis' whereabouts were unknown.
Of course, I'm perpetuating the topic by complaining about the perpetuation of the topic, so I'll end it here. Hopefully, Riggo and his crew and the rest of the media do the same.
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