The wasted career of an Arizona Cardinals linebacker

Arizona Cardinals’ LB Daryl Washington was on his way to greatness until drug use and legal problems left his career in limbo

2012 was not a very good season for the Arizona Cardinals. The team lost 11 of it’s last 12 games and finished with a 5 and 11 record. Head coach Ken Whisenhunt was fired.

One of the few bright spots that season was the play of ILB Daryl Washington. He was in his third season, making plays all over the field, accumulating 134 tackles and nine sacks. He was rewarded with a trip to the Pro Bowl and a four-year contract extension worth $32 million.

His NFL career began in 2010 when the Cards drafted him in the 2nd round. He saw an ample amount of playing time right from the beginning, racking up 78 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and an interception in his rookie year.

In 2011 Washington was even better, he recorded 107 tackles, five sacks and two interceptions. His career was clearly on the ascent.

But after his Pro Bowl season of 2012 problems began to surface. In April of 2013 the NFL suspended Washington for the first four games of the upcoming season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. In May he was arrested for shoving the mother of his daughter to the ground, leaving her with a broken collarbone.

After serving his four game suspension at the beginning of the 2013 season Washington teamed with the newly re-acquired Karlos Dansby to form a dynamic duo at ILB. In only 12 games he managed 75 tackles, three sacks, one fumble recovery and two interceptions.

After again excelling on the field Washington now had to face the music from the altercation with his daughter’s mom. In March of 2014 he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and in April was sentenced to a year of supervised probation.

After basically getting away with a slap on the wrist from the assault Cardinal fans were hoping Washington would appreciate his good fortune, fly straight and put his personal demons behind him.

Unfortunately it was not to be. Just one month after his sentencing in April the NFL once again suspended Washington for drug use, this time for the entire 2014 season.

Last summer he applied for reinstatement and Cardinal fans waited patiently for the news that their star linebacker would be returning to the field. Instead came rumors that he had “multiple violations ” while on suspension, leaving his return to the Cards or any other team highly doubtful.

Steve Keim and the Cardinals’ front office are reportedly very disappointed by his behavior and rightfully so. There’ve been reports that they’ve tried to recoup some of the bonus money they gave to the linebacker. No word on whether they’ve been successful or not.

So what we have here is another case of wasted talent. A highly skilled player who has either chosen to throw his career away or maybe is just too sick to do anything about it on his own and needs help.

Either way the Cardinals lost a valued employee and the fans lost an exciting, dynamic player to cheer for on Sundays.