Even after being traded to Denver in the swap of nominal draft picks, Su'a Cravens is still shadow boxing his perceived critics back in Washington, D.C.
The former Redskins draft pick devoted significant time in his introductory press conference to discuss the bizarre sequence of events that took him from a key member of the Redskins' defense to persona non grata.
"I wanted a fresh start, I don’t like the way things happened," said Cravens. "I’ve always been excited about football, you know, I’m a competitor."
And yet, in the same breath, Cravens talks about his decision to walk away from the game while he was dealing with some combination of personal issues potentially caused by concussions.
“I was going through something I wasn’t even aware that I was going through," he explained. "It was just crazy. I didn’t even realize you was just in a predicament that you was just completely unaware of. There was a point where I was done with football."
Done with football, even though he has always been excited about it.
"The mindset that I had, back last year, it was completely different from how I am now."
Completely different mindset now, even though he has always been excited about football.
The reason why people continue to question his story is that it continues to not make sense.
Cravens said he can't talk about everything that happened between him and the Redskins and perhaps he never will. But what he has only muddied the waters around the circumstances of his departure. What were the personal circumstances? What did that have to do with concussions? How does he explain rumors of quitting on his team in college? What really happened behind closed doors at Redskins Park?
Instead, he just concluded: "I think there is a false narrative on what exactly happened."
If he doesn't want to talk about it right now, then he should avoid tempting the questions. If he has a complete story to share that would help Redskins fans find closure, then he should share it.
The call-in line for 106.7 The Fan is 800-636-1067, and any of the shows would be happy to share his side of the story.