Redskins claim embattled linebacker Reuben Foster off of waivers

The Redskins appear to be desperately clinging to their 2018 playoff hopes.

Sometimes, a taste of something makes it too much to give up. The Washington Redskins got a taste of success earlier in the 2018 campaign, when they rocketed out to a 5-2 start, maintaining a two-game lead in the NFC East for half of the season.

The Redskins rode their front seven and their running game early on, winning with an old-school style of football that featured physicality and turnovers on defense, and a stringent stronghold of time of possession on offense.

Over the past few weeks, however, with the season-ending injury to Alex Smith, and the perceived regression of a defense with too little speed, the Redskins have fallen into a slump, and with just five games left before the playoffs, they’re in danger of letting their strong start go to waste.

And so, they’ve taken upon themselves to enact desperate measures, signing embattled former 49ers linebacker Reuben Foster off of waivers. Adam Schefter first reported the news. The Redskins will likely place Cassanova McKinzy, who suffered a torn pectoral against the Cowboys, on injured reserve to make space for Foster.

Much like the Adrian Peterson signing in August, there are very obvious moral quandaries unearthed with this signing, and the charges in question are much more recent, and almost inherently greater in severity, as a result.

Foster was recently arrested as a result of a domestic violence dispute that occurred at the 49ers’ team hotel in Florida, per Thomas Lott of Sporting News. The incident was not Foster’s first as a member of the 49ers, and thus, the team released him, due to the repeat offense. He likely faces a looming suspension.

In fact, Foster’s spotty legal history spans beyond the start of his NFL career. During combine events in 2017, Foster was sent home after violently quarreling with a hospital worker. He later failed a drug test administered to him, and with the 49ers, he had an additional weapons charge against his name, which earned him a two-game suspension to start the 2018 season.

Foster has character concerns that have not smoothed out for some time, and while the reunion of Foster with high-character Alabama players such as Jonathan Allen, Ryan Anderson, Shaun Dion Hamilton, and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, could help Foster right his own ship, to make that assumption is dangerous, and even more dangerous is the precedent set by signing Foster; that winning is more important than upholding morality, and holding those who make mistakes accountable.

The Redskins may have wanted to give Foster a support system capable of giving him a fresh start. That is a potential ulterior motive, and a noble one, in a vacuum. But the primary reason for Foster’s signing is fairly clear. The Redskins signed him to win. And if winning is more important than accountability, morality, and justice for a victim, then Washington has more work to do, on and off the field.