The Las Vegas Raiders and Maxx Crosby were undoubtedly burned by the Baltimore Ravens, but the latter’s PR cleanup job is equally disgraceful.
Sashi Brown stepped up to the microphone Monday at the league meetings and said all the right things. He just wasn’t very convincing.
The Ravens team president blamed the backlash over the Crosby trade fallout on “a slow news cycle” and told reporters the team’s reputation is fine because of its “strong and long relationships across the league.”
What he didn’t do was answer the questions that actually matter. The Ravens’ handling of this situation goes well beyond a slow week in the news, and a few polished talking points don’t change that (H/T ESPN).
Let’s start with what happened…
Baltimore agreed to send two first-round picks, including the No. 14 overall selection, to Las Vegas for one of the best pass rushers in the NFL. Four days later, the deal was dead. Less than 24 hours after that, the Ravens signed Trey Hendrickson to a four-year, $112 million deal with no physical contingency and no draft picks attached. That’s not a team frozen by uncertainty. That’s a team that knew exactly what it wanted to do next.
So the question worth asking is this: If Baltimore’s medical staff had real concerns about Crosby’s knee imaging, how hard did they actually look before committing two first-round picks in the first place?
Brown’s “no fault” line is the most revealing thing he said all day. “No fault of Maxx, ours, or the Raiders.” It sounds fair. It sounds balanced. What it actually does is let everyone off the hook while saying nothing. Teams have every right to use a physical contingency.
But when a trade this big falls apart this publicly, and when it’s serious enough that Brown is addressing it in front of the whole league, calling it a neutral outcome with no real responsibility attached isn’t honesty. It’s a spin.
Then there’s Maxx Crosby himself…
Brown talked about treating the situation with “privacy and respect and dignity.” At the same time, a source was out there describing Crosby’s imaging as showing a “degenerative issue” in his knee, which has real consequences for how the rest of the league sees him as a player. Those two things don’t fit together neatly.
Raiders general manager John Spytek handled it the right way. “Maxx is back like he never left,” he said. Short, clean, and protective of his guy. That’s the standard.
Brown may be right that the process worked the way it was supposed to. Physical contingencies are normal. Trades fall apart. The AJ Epenesa situation with Cleveland proves this isn’t unique to Baltimore.
But doing something by the book and doing something without consequence are two different things. The Ravens got out of the deal, avoided giving up two first-rounders, and landed a quality pass rusher for money alone. That’s a good result for Baltimore.
Calling the criticism a slow news cycle, though? That’s a little too cute.
*Top Photo: Ramble Illustration/Getty Images