When the Las Vegas Raiders took on the Cleveland Browns in Week 4, not only did star edge rusher Maxx Crosby not play due to a high-ankle sprain he suffered in Week 2, he wasn't in attendance for the game, either.
That led to former Browns general manager Michael Lombardi coming to the conclusion that Crosby had a "disconnect" with head coach Antonio Pierce and added that he believed there was a problem in the locker room.
“That bothers me,” Lombardi said on The Pat McAfee Show. “That tells me there’s something going on in the locker room. There seems to be more than one disconnect. Crosby has always been the team guy, but when he doesn’t show up to a game, that tells me something without knowing something.”
Crosby obviously caught wind of those comments from Lombardi and went off on the former NFL general manager, even going as far as to call him a clown.
“Then I have to hear these clowns talking online and talking on The Pat McAfee Show saying something is going on,” Crosby said. “These clowns are sitting on a couch talking about what I should be doing. When the reality is I’m gaining yardage and trying to get right so I can get back on the field. Everyone knows my intentions, but they try to speak for me.
“But don’t speak about me when you don’t know what’s going on and you’re speaking for me or speaking about the organization. ‘Oh, something must be going on with Maxx.’ Come on, bro. You know where I want to be. You think I want to be anywhere else? No. I have this (expletive) tatted on my body. I don’t want to go anywhere.”
During an interview with Eddie Gonzalez of Complex, not only did Pierce say his relationship with Pierce is just fine, he also made it clear he didn't attend the game because the team thought it would be in his best interest to fully rest his ankle.
"Bro, I'm not going to lie to you. I was probably the most stressed I've ever been since I've been in the league just sitting there at the crib," Crosby said. "As much as I wanted to be there, and AP wanted me to be there at the game – I'm trying to get back on the field ASAP – they thought it was in my best interest and in the team's best interest for me to rehab and get my feet up and game ready and ice during the game at the crib because I'm a maniac. I'm going to be running up and down the sideline. I can't help myself. So they're like, take your a-- home, stay at home. So I cleared out everybody, nobody was there besides me and my dog at my crib. So I had my man cave and I was locked in screaming at the TV for four hours."
The last person on the Raiders anyone should question is Crosby, who has showed complete and total dedication to the franchise, no matter how bad things are going. And, not once has he ever tried to run from it the way Davante Adams currently is.
The rest did Crosby a lot of good, it seems, as he returned in Week 5 and tallied a pair of sacks against the Denver Broncos. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to propel the Raiders to a win.
