Cromartie likely to join LT on way out the door
By UNION-TRIBUNE
Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 12:01 a.m.
K.C. Alfred / Union-Tribune
Dallas has been mentioned as a possible location for Antonio Cromartie if he's traded.
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No extra lubrication was necessary, because it was going to happen, anyway. But now that LaDainian Tomlinson has greased his own skids for what unfortunately will become a bumpy and bitter run out of town, the Chargers must enter the football player meat market and push their basket along the tailback aisle.
In fact, given that General Manager A.J. Smith isn’t one to drive without insurance, make that two tailbacks. Depending on what happens when the NFL begins its new year at 9:01 p.m. March 4 — will protean Darren Sproles opt for free agency? — possibly even three tailbacks.
And for now, at least, cornerback Antonio Cromartie is trade chum.
The mysterious-but-talented corner is on the block, possibly to be moved in return for a back, possibly for a draft choice that could become a back.
Maybe some team with a gaggle of rushers — Dallas, coached by former Chargers defensive coordinator Wade Philips, is being mentioned — will want Cromartie (Phillips coached him), maybe some team won’t. No matter. Although Cromartie still has one year left on his contract and it’s conceivable he could return, don’t count on it.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that (Cromartie’s on the block),” Smith says. “Every day is a new adventure. I’m not commenting on it.”
There is interest in the cornerback. There has been. It didn’t start now.
But, if Cromartie had a goose, he cooked it here when he froze and failed to even get in the way of Jets back Shonn Greene last month in the Chargers’ disappointing divisional playoff loss. Greene turned the nonattempt — and a bad attempted tackle by safety Eric Weddle — into a killer 53-yard touchdown run.
Smith does not admire soft DBs. When corner Cletis Gordon went matador on a kickoff return during the 2009 exhibition season, he was gone the next day. Cromartie, a former first-round draft choice, is not Gordon. One of the NFL’s greatest athletes, he’s worth something, and he hardly had an awful year.
But he’s not a mix-’em-up corner (his bookend, Quentin Jammer, is). You say Deion Sanders didn’t like to tackle people. Cromartie isn’t Deion, either. Incredible potential, yes, but potential is a word people keep using when you haven’t done enough.
I think he’s gone, and I know Tomlinson is. If you’re surprised, you have the attention span of a toddler.
As one who has admired LT’s strengths as a player and someone who embraced the community that embraced him, I’m saddened to see him leaving spewing vitriol, basically pointing the blame at everybody but the running back whose remarkable gifts gradually have deteriorated to that of being good enough to still play in The League. He’s just another guy now, and certainly not worth the $5 million he would earn in 2010 should the Chargers choose to keep him around for a farewell tour.
Maybe the run blocking he’d been used to wasn’t there last season. Maybe the Chargers became pass-first. But if you’ve followed LT, then you know there were opportunities, when what once would have been long runs turned into short gains, or no gain at all.
The man is an icon. But this is a hard game, man. If the 49ers could dump Joe Montana, a god in San Francisco, the Chargers can cut ties with LT. I can’t blame him for thinking he’s what he was, but he’s not.
Maybe he will go somewhere and gain 1,500 yards next year. Good for him. I seriously doubt it.
But I never expected him to take the low road. Since that loss to the Jets, he’s said he wasn’t happy during the season, that he was misused, when during the team’s 11-game winning streak he was upbeat. He also matter-of-factly noted there was a disconnect in the locker room, that some of the players weren’t committed to winning.
As one of the great running backs in history, as solid and admired a citizen as the NFL has produced, as a team leader, if he felt this way, why didn’t he speak up? I’m not saying it isn’t true, but if the Chargers went on to win the Super Bowl, we never would have heard it. Guaranteed.
“So he said that? I guess that’s it then,” Smith says. “No, I didn’t sense any of that in the locker room. I like this team, but there always are guys I have my eyes on that you don’t know about.
“You’re never going to have a bunch of kids doing 100-percent proper things. It’s that way in society, but in the NFL, players are tracked constantly by fans and media. We work with players to a point, and we decide when that point is over.
“Sometimes we’re not quick enough for people. I understand that. I think we have a terrific bunch of guys, but we’re not perfect.”
Soon, they will be minus two stars. My thinking is that what the Chargers really need is a veteran guy — or guys — who will kick some serious butt in that locker room.
Meanwhile, let’s just hope they don’t follow San Diego sports history’s script and give Cromartie away.
