Commentary : Martin, Ross and Carpenter Are Three Men on the Move

Judging from the outward bound traffic Wednesday afternoon, a lot of people were in a hurry to get out of town. And while we’re on this subject of “getting out,” here are three names to add to the list: Bobby Carpenter of the Capitals, Charles Martin, the life of the party on the Green Bay Packers, and Bobby Ross, head football coach at the University of Maryland. Carpenter has been put on ice by the Capitals, told he’s no longer welcome. As you read this he’s being auctioned off. For late-breaking developments, call the Caps and ask for Monty Hall.

After calf-roping Jim McMahon last Sunday, Martin has been suspended without pay for two games by NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. However, pending appeal he was allowed to play Thursday against Detroit. It’s an interesting punishment. Sort of like telling Ivan Boesky that he has to go to jail, but first he can be the chairman of the SEC.

Ross has been given a deadline by his employer, the University of Maryland, which is apparently tired of his pouty indecision. By Monday, Ross must choose either to stay put at Maryland, or leave. Ross has said the critical factor in his decision will be whether he feels Maryland will give him the opportunity to compete for a national championship. But, hypothetically, how many schools are lusting after a coach whose 1986 file folder includes a 4-5-1 record and a notorious one-game suspension for rude behavior?

Okay. Lightning round:

Martin. Fair? Or unfair?

Unfair. Who does this guy think he is, Rowdy Roddy Piper? Don’t tell me how McMahon is a jerk, and he had this coming to him. He’s a jerk, no argument. But if that had been your quarterback laying on the turf, you’d be howling for blood.

Charles Martin is a thug. That was an act of premeditated assault, and he’s lucky if McMahon doesn’t sue him. Two games! What standard do they base that punishment on, how many times the quarterback bounces after he hits the ground? What do you get for murder, four games and you can’t play in the NFL pro-am?

Martin should be suspended for the rest of this season--give me a break on this Detroit game--and as long thereafter as McMahon doesn’t play.

Ross. Stay? Or go?

Yes. Have you seen this man lately? Does he look like a happy camper? Talk about your ongoing melodrama. How many years do we have to listen to Ross wondering out loud whether he should leave Maryland? Nobody has been this tortured since Hamlet. What is he waiting for, an answer from Ann Landers? Dear Confused in College Park . . .

Ross keeps finding something to whine about: The size of Byrd Stadium, academic guidelines and how many specific exemptions he can have, not getting a pass interference call all season. For the 100th time, he’s an honest man and a fine coach. But it’s obvious he’s not having a whole lot of fun here. Maybe he can go to Wisconsin or Purdue. The National Security Council has openings if he needs a job in a hurry. But if he should stay, for heaven’s sake let him smile when he says so.

Carpenter. Weird? Or what?

Both. Carpenter isn’t simply on the trading block, he’s in aspic. This is the angriest thing management can do to a player--telling the world that he is of such little use to them, personally and professionally, that not only don’t they want him on their team, they don’t even want him near their team, as if he were contagious.

Born in the U.S.A. and playing in its capital city, young Bobby Carpenter, The Can’t Miss Kid, apparently has missed. “We’ve been unable to motivate him to play to the best of his potential,” David Poile, the general manager of the Capitals, said wearily. “You don’t make a decision to do this unless it’s close to being irreparable.”

Two seasons ago Carpenter scored 53 goals. Last season that number shrank to 27. This season he was on an 18-goal comatose pace. “We had expectations and we paid him accordingly,” Poile said. “He didn’t live up to them.” After a pause, Poile said, “Sometimes a marriage doesn’t work, and you have to separate. This is a divorce.”

Carpenter has been characterized as “independent,” which in this context is usually a synonym for “tough to control.” And Carpenter has himself pointed out how everybody knows he and the Capitals coach, Bryan Murray, “don’t get along.” But recently, Poile told the team that “no trades are contemplated now.” What did Carpenter do to get himself fired?

This was a radical act. Most teams would have swiftly, but quietly, traded the offending player. (Carpenter surely would have commanded a higher price in trade before this fury.) By going so public in his distancing of Carpenter from the Capitals, Poile appears to have deliberately made an example of him for the rest of the players to carefully consider.

Although Poile emphatically said that Carpenter was in no way being made the scapegoat for the Capitals’ poor start, it is an inescapable conclusion that Poile has responded to the team’s floundering not by firing the coach, but by firing a star player. The Capitals should be advised that failure to live up to expectations can result in public humiliation.

Such a bizarre and bitter step for the Capitals and Carpenter, who was once their shining pride, suggests whirling undercurrents that have yet to surface. Meanwhile, we await Carpenter’s relocation and suspect he’ll be happier and more productive wherever he lands.