Derek Anderson and Kerry Rhodes Have Grievances to Air

The Browns released quarterback Derek Anderson yesterday. On Saturday the Jets traded safety Kerry Rhodes to the Arizona Cardinals for two draft picks. What common thread could dovetail two seemingly disparate player transactions? Why, the awesome power of bitterness!↵

↵↵Rhodes, who definitely bought into Rex Ryan’s philosophy of talking trash this season, was less enthralled with Ryan’s tendency to favor former players from the Ravens who the coach brought with him to New York. Under the new coach, Rhodes claims he was stripped of a former leadership role. Possibly not helping his case were frequent battles with defensive assistants Mike Pettine and Dennis Thurman. It’s tough for Rhodes to make a compelling case, though, considering the changes he’s bemoaning resulted in the NFL’s top-ranked defense last year.↵

↵↵Anderson, meanwhile, lashed out at a more sensitive target in Cleveland: the fans. Those horrible fans who booed him.↵

↵↵⇥“The fans are ruthless and don’t deserve a winner,” Anderson wrote Tuesday in a terse e-mail when asked for a reaction to being released. “I will never forget getting cheered when I was injured. I know at times I wasn’t great. I hope and pray I’m playing when my team comes to town and (we) roll them.”↵↵↵Obviously, that’s frustration talking and Anderson has already apologized. He does, however, have a right to be upset about home fans applauding when he tore a knee ligament in 2008 game. That season was a stark contrast to the previous one, in which he threw for 29 touchdowns. But, even after that, the coaching staff was never decisive about whether he or Brady Quinn would be the team’s long-term answer at quarterback. Perhaps he should have leveled some of his pointed comments at them instead. ↵

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