Fooch’s update: Washington was the only team to claim Foster, but it turns out the Philadelphia Eagles were the only team to call Tampa police about Foster, according to USA Today’s A.J. Perez.
The San Francisco 49ers released Reuben Foster due to his third arrest in 11 months and he was claimed off waivers Monday by Washington. Turns out, no other team made a claim on the linebacker, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
At first, Schefter misspoke saying the Cleveland Browns had been the ones to claim Foster, but later updated the information to Washington, which means Cleveland would have made no claim based on their order on the waiver wire.
Shortly after the claim was made, the NFL placed Foster on the Commissioner’s Exempt List keeps him from playing or practicing any time soon while the league investigates the latest domestic violence dispute. The league’s personal conduct policy states that a player placed on the list “may not practice or attend games, but with the club’s permission, he may be present at the club’s facility on a reasonable basis for meetings, individual workouts, therapy and rehabilitation, and other permitted non-football activities.”
So now Washington has a shiny new linebacker that isn’t allowed to play. There’s a lot of questions as to why Washington would take the headaches of Foster, especially when they claimed they were against domestic violence during the Ray Rice fiasco. They claimed to have done their due diligence in a statement and had his teammates speak up for him.
Some speculation is this is a move to get back at Kyle Shanahan. Long story short, Shanahan and Washington owner Dan Snyder don’t play nice. It stems back from when Shanahan worked in Washington under his dad Mike Shanahan as the offensive coordinator. Since then, Snyder has been speculated to have slapped the franchise tag on Kirk Cousins in order to keep Shanahan from getting his mitts on on the quarterback in 2017.
The Foster acquisition doesn’t carry anything right now, especially with the linebacker suspended, but should Washington turn his career—and life by extension—around, it’s just another chance to rub something in Kyle’s face.