Redskins Have Third-String Quarterback Controversy

Only the Washington Redskins can have a quarterback controversy centered on the third-string quarterback.

Jeff Hostetler was back with the Washington Redskins late last week, a day after being under the impression he had been waived, except the Redskins didn’t actually waive him, but we’re not sure now whether Hostetler will decide to have knee surgery that would probably sideline him until next season when he would either retire or play for somebody else.

Got that?

Most stuff in sports is black or white, particularly when it involves NFL quarterbacks. This isn’t. This is 50 different shades of gray.

Jeff Hostetler, one of the always-accountable players in the NFL for the past 15 years, said he told Norv Turner and Charlie Casserly back in January that if he wasn’t going to have the chance to compete for the No. 1 job, he would retire. Being No. 3, behind green Trent Green and benched Gus Frerotte, isn’t exactly Hostetler’s idea of getting to compete on the field for the chance to play. How do you go from No. 2 to No. 3, Hostetler wants to know, on an 0-2 team where the original No. 1 played himself to the bench? “It’s tough to be demoted,” Hoss said, “without having it happen on the field.”

Hostetler has a good point.

The Redskins say a lot of stuff has changed since January, including Hostetler’s pre-season knee injury, which is originally what prevented him from taking over when Frerotte was benched during the season opener against the Giants. Norv Turner says he’s not just going to yank the rug from under Green and Frerotte simply because Hostetler, who indeed needs knee surgery, says now that he’s healthy enough to play.

Turner has a good point.

The Redskins feel they need three ready-to-play quarterbacks and say they aren’t going to trade Hostetler, which is understandable.

Hostetler says he never would have come back to the Redskins under these circumstances and if this is all the Redskins envision for him, the team should waive him and let him try to place someplace else, which is also understandable.

We don’t even have a real difference of opinion here, just different agendas, different goals. Hostetler, 37, wants the opportunity to play now, which pretty much means you need to be the No. 2 guy. The Redskins want Hostetler to be a Redskin, whether that means playing or holding a clipboard the rest of the season.

Well, at least it’s not contentious.

Asked by a local sportscaster whether he feels misled or lied to, Hostetler smiled that backed-into-a-corner smile and said, “Could you restate that question in another way? . . . Do I answer this as Clinton would?”

Hostetler and Turner talked last week before their miscommunication and again a couple of times even before practice Thursday, Hoss said. “There hasn’t been any animosity,” he said, “any screaming and yelling, stuff like that.”

But reasonable conversation doesn’t mean Hostetler and Turner and/or Charley Casserly have come to a resolution satisfactory to both parties. “I can’t tell you,” Hostetler said, “when something will be resolved, or if something can be resolved. I don’t like what’s going on. . . . We’re discussing . . . trying to resolve it in a way that’s beneficial for both. There are some things you just don’t have a real easy answer for. . . .”

The way things came down last week, it made Hoss look like a selfish bum. And he isn’t. He’s anything but. He’s had a long, distinguished career that includes a Super Bowl championship. When the Redskins signed him before last season I applauded because besides still being a good quarterback (he’d played well in his final season with the Raiders), he had the reputation of being a great teammate, a gamer, a tough guy’s tough guy.

If Hoss was demanding that Turner make him the No. 1 guy right this minute and kick Green to the curb, that would be selfish. But Hostetler said later, “Trent deserves to play; I have no problem with that.”

It’s being behind Frerotte that is causing the problem. “I’m not a third quarterback; I don’t believe I am. (Turner) knows where I’m coming from as a competitor,” Hostetler said.

But because the Redskins continue to list him No. 3 on the depth chart, Hostetler asked Turner and then Casserly to be waived. When Casserly went to make phone calls to get a grip on the situation and nobody told Hoss directly he wouldn’t be waived, Hostetler left and assumed his Redskins career was over. “I left,” he said, “under the assumption I had been released.

“I didn’t leave in a huff,” Hostetler continued. “I didn’t clean out my locker and quit, as was reported. I’ve never quit anything in my life; I’m a competitor, a fierce competitor and have been all my life. I need surgery and I put that aside because there’s a chance to play. The risk is I can damage that knee to a point where it can’t be repaired like it can be like now. (But) I love played the game. And if the opportunity is there, I’m going out no matter what.”

Guess what? The opportunity may just be there, no matter where Hostetler’s listed on the depth chart. The guys in front of him aren’t John Elway and Steve Young. I defy anybody to correctly forecast what the Redskins’ offense, starting with the quarterback position, will do today in Seattle. Now, I’ve got to admit I’m one of the people who feels Hostetler’s best days probably rusted away during his inactivity with the Redskins last season. Still, I wouldn’t hesitate for one second to send him into the game in Seattle if the heat gets turned up on Green, and it just may.