A strange, bizarre season in Washington has become even more strange, more bizarre.
Linebacker Mason Foster recently sounded off about the franchise and its paying customers via a direct message on social media: “F--k this team and this fan base,” Foster typed, adding a string of laugh-to-you-cry emojis.
On Wednesday, coach Jay Gruden gave Foster a pass for his social media faux pas.
“We talked to Mason about it,” Gruden told reporters. “I don’t know when it was exactly, but it was a private message. The guy I guess screenshotted it, which is I guess against the code of private messages on screenshots.”
Um, what? A “private message” sent in social media doesn’t make the contents of the message confidential. Foster said what he said in response to a fan who was sending Foster a message of encouragement. The content of Foster’s comment is no more secret than if Foster had spoken the words out loud.
“I know what Mason is, I know what he means to this football team, what he’s meant to this football team, and anything he said in a personal message was personal and I really don’t take anything from it,” Gruden said. “I do, however, disagree with that guy posting a private message out on social media. He broke a code there that I don’t agree with. As far as Mason, I have nothing but respect for him as a person and a player.”
Again, there’s no “code” that applies, unless the recipient is a journalist (he apparently isn’t) and Foster said “off the record” before proceeding (he definitely didn’t).
Gruden said as to the contents of the message, “I really don’t even care. It’s a private message. . . . I know Mason and how hard he’s worked and how hard he plays. I know he wouldn’t say anything publicly to do that. That was a private deal. He could’ve been messing around. I don’t know the intent of that message, I don’t really care.” (Apparently, when they talked to Foster, they didn’t ask all the right questions.)
It sounds as if Gruden currently has enough crap to deal with, and that he’d prefer to find a way to not make an issue out of something that would create yet another distraction and embarrassment for a team that has weathered plenty of them in recent weeks.
