Andrew Quarless and Bob Quinn’s Rookie Mistake

When Bob Quinn took over as GM of the Detroit Lions, he proclaimed in an interview following his introductory press conference,

"The two things that are zero tolerance are domestic violence and dangerous weapons. Those are the two things I’m not going to stand for, I don’t believe in. That’s how I feel."

It’s seven months later and already Quinn has changed course. Faced with dire straits at the tight end position thanks to injuries to Eric Ebron (short term), Brandon Pettigrew (longer term) and Tim Wright (long term), Quinn opted to sign Andrew Quarless.

Quarless was suspended by the NFL over the weekend for an incident where he fired a gun during an argument in a parking garage. That incident took place in July of 2015, over a year ago and involved another man and two women. He tried to hide the gun and never pointed the weapon directly at anyone, per the police report. The former Packer plead no contest after initially pleading not guilty and was put on probation for the misdemeanor charge.

Quinn made a rookie mistake in being so bold with his zero tolerance proclamation. He’ll learn from this. Good managers do, be it in football or the private industry or the military. There can be no absolutes in a business where absolutely nothing is more important than winning

The Michigan media cried foul right away. Fans seem torn but definitely perplexed by the rapid change of course.

My take?

It does bother me. A little. But I never really bought into the “zero tolerance”.

The sanctimonious tone Quinn took on this issue from the get-go created an ideal that no NFL team can possibly maintain. Players do get framed, or wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time, or quickly plea to try and make something unsavory go away.

This is not Jerry Jones signing pass rusher Greg Hardy, a recalcitrant thug guilty of threatening to kill his girlfriend by throwing her on a bed of loaded firearms. This is not Frank Clark holding a shard to a woman’s neck and threatening to kill her in the presence of small children, yet still getting drafted in the second round by the Seahawks because he’s a freak athlete.

A couple of things are important here.

First, this is not the first player Quinn signed who broke this code. That would be Orson Charles…

Ironically, one of the biggest reasons why Quarless is in Detroit is because Charles isn’t getting the job done at tight end.

Second, I’m big on redemption. So is Jim Caldwell, a trait very important to his coaching mentor Tony Dungy. You might recall Dungy taking a chance on a troublesome talent in Warren Sapp once upon a time. Quarless’ old team in Green Bay once took a chance on a self-described “wild thing” who drank his way off the Falcons in Brett Favre.

Quarless made a dumb mistake and used a gun in a dangerous manner. That’s a lot more serious than drinking or smoking pot, though the league’s penal code doesn’t seem to think so. But it was a misdemeanor over a year ago. No priors. Nothing since. That means something to me. It clearly meant something to Caldwell and Quinn.

Then there’s the on-field angle. Quarless is not a very good receiving threat, but he is a solid in-line blocker. With Pettigrew still on the shelf and Cole Wick proving in Friday’s preseason win over Pittsburgh he is not NFL-ready as a blocker, Quarless does fill a real need. The pickings are awful slim on the free agent market right now.

If not the Lions, someone else would have signed him. I do believe Quinn in his statement he released to the media,

This is what successful teams do. They weigh the positive value of a player against the negative weight of their indiscretions. Quarless made a dumb mistake and paid for it with two game checks. The Lions are comfortable it was an isolated incident.

Quinn made a rookie mistake in being so bold with his zero tolerance proclamation. He’ll learn from this. Good managers do, be it in football or the private industry or the military. There can be no absolutes in a business where absolutely nothing is more important than winning.

Bob Quinn was naïve to say, and to perhaps think otherwise. Fans were complicit in their own naïveté to so willingly believe him. Hopefully everyone learns from this.