First Step to Replacing Routt: Brandon Underwood?
The Oakland Raiders have announced through their Twitter account, and on their website that they have signed DB Brandon Underwood to a new contract. Terms of the contract were not announced. The Green Bay Packers announced Underwood’s release back on 9/3/2011. Underwood had been with the team since being drafted in the 6th round by the Packers in 2009.
In his 2 years with the Packers, Underwood appeared in 23 games and had a combined total of 21 tackles (15 solo 6 asst.) Most of those tackles were on special teams. He had no interceptions, sacks, or passes defensed in his tenure with the team that earned him a championship ring.
This is a surprising signing by the Raiders, given the fact that Reggie McKenzie has pledged to stay away from “certain types of players.” Gone were the days of Ken Stabler getting in at 6:00 in the morning after partying the night before a game. No longer will we see players with personal issues that overshadow their presence on the field. To this end, we all must have had the sense that if McKenzie had been in charge when Rolando McClain had his off-field incident, that things would have gone much different than the way Hue Jackson handled it. Or so we thought.
Why do I mention this? Well, it seems Mr. Underwood has had more than one incident in which law enforcement has become involved. The first such incident happened in June of 2010 when Underwood, along with 6 other Green Bay Packers players were accused of sexual assault by 2 women. As it turns out, the 2 women were actually strippers whom Underwood had paid to have sex with him at a condo where the men where partying. When Underwood discovered that they were stealing from him, he confronted them, and threw them out. Underwood eventually pleaded no contest to solicitation.
His second encounter happened on June 16th of this past year right after he, along with his teammates, received his super bowl ring. While in the car, he reached over to the passenger side where his wife was sitting and ripped off the necklace that had just been given to her by the team (something all the wives of players received.) He then proceeded to get out of the car, walk over to the driver’s side, open the door and drag his wife out of the car before driving off. Underwood also pleaded no contest in this case in exchange for dropping the charge to disorderly conduct.
So the question besides his obvious lack of judgement at times in his personal life, is: Has McKenzie brought Underwood in because he thinks he can compete for the starting job vacated by Stanford Routt? Or is he simply bringing in someone to play on special teams and add a little depth to the the lineup? Stay tuned to find out.
Both the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal and FoxSports.com were used to source the previous incidents involving Underwood and the police.
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