"You Can't Buy a Championship"

But you can buy sports radio stations

By JIM IOVINO

Updated 5:31 PM EDT, Tue, Jul 21, 2009

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Does LaVar Arrington still hold a grudge against the Washington Redskins and owner Dan Snyder? You betcha.

The former Skins linebacker went off Monday on new sports talk radio station WJFK (106.7 FM). All it took was a little rumor about Snyder's interest in buying the new sports talker to get him started. Broadcast partner Chad Dukes lit the fuse and got away:

"When is enough enough?" Dukes asked. "This man has bought everything involved with the Redskins and involved with covering them."

"Except a championship," Arrington fired back.

Arrington then went on a verbal rampage about the culture of the Redskins and the big-time contracts that are tossed about like footballs at a quarterback camp. He claimed he left the Redskins after restructuring his contract in order to bring in more quality players, only to see it all fall apart -- not because of his own contract squabbles over missing bonuses.

"If individuals want to say it was about the money, it was an overwhelming situation that showed that it's not about the money at the end of the day," Arrington said. "It's about how you treat people, it's about the chemistry, it's about the culture ... It's why individuals go running to New England ... Outside of wanting to play against the Redskins again, that's why I went to New York. It paid off. They won a Super Bowl because of that culture.

"You can't buy a championship. If it didn't happen my rookie year with the individuals that were assembled ... You can't buy a championship. It has to come from within. Until this organization gets to that point, if it ever gets to that point, then we'll be talking about interesting rumors like if another station is going to get bought so they don't talk bad about the Redskins."

Arrington later talked about the Redskins' reputation as signing off on big free-agent paychecks with little regard for team chemistry, saying he saw evidence of that during his tenure with the Skins.

"That has almost become the reputation of the Redskins: If you want to get a big payday, go to the Redskins," Arrington said. "It's not about you getting in there and making sure you win. A lot of times it's that you got the contract you were looking for. I witnessed that to a degree with some of the players I played with ... I did two restructurings to try to win ... I redid my contract with the understanding it would make me a lifelong Redskin. When it turned out to be foul play and was done in a messy and unclassy manner, I would give millions of dollars back to be released from ever having to work in that environment to having keep that money and hope that I could keep collecting.

"The bottom line is, for some people, it's about winning," he said. "I really wanted to win as a Washington Redskin. As fate would have it, I don't feel that was the main agenda of some people in the organization."

Before you think it was all just a big hatefest on Snyder and his Skins, Arrington did find at least one nice thing to say about his former employer.

"For a long time he's been the highest-grossing sports franchise in all of sports, up until (the Cowboys) built their new stadium," Arrington said. "There's a reason and a rhyme for doing the things he does. I do give him the utmost respect on being able to take care of business in a way where he's able to generate a whole lot of money."