Redskins Secret Weapon Will Bring Wins

As a Broncos fan I did laugh a little when I saw the Redskins trade for Case Keenum, In fact I’d called the move weeks in advance (tune in tomorrow for this week’s lotto numbers).

Keenum isn’t a bad quarterback per say but you’ll be interested to hear that this feature has absolutely nothing to do with me arguing for or against Keenum, in fact it’s literally got nothing to do with Case Keenum.

There’s a forgotten man in the NFL, a man argued to be on a level of production similar to Saquon Barkley and Nick Chubb. The next best thing to a time machine if you’re looking for a young Marshawn Lynch, Derrius Guice.

Let me deal with the immediate arguments against Guice breaking out for the Redskins first and then we’ll crack on with the good stuff.

The Redskins Awful Offensive Line play is something I cannot and will not argue against, without trawling through it’s history I can tell you right now that it’s cursed. Do you know which other NFL teams had not so great offensive line play? – New York Giants, Cleveland Browns and to an extent the Denver Broncos. All 3 of those sides have 1 thing in common – poor offensive line play yet they still produced running stars in 2018. So what I’m really saying here is that Guice is good enough to not need an amazing O-line.

And what’s that Redskins Offensive line going to do when teams stack the box because Keenum can’t make big throws? Like I mentioned above, Guice is good enough to get over poor QB play and poor offensive line play, exactly like Lindsay in Denver with Keenum and back up swing tackles playing guard all year it didn’t matter.

Guice is coming off of a huge injury, I can’t exactly ignore that, neither of the breakout running backs in 2019 were coming off of such serious injuries and I have to take that into consideration, I cannot defend the argument that he could suffer another injury or that Guice may have lost yard of pace, but my argument goes a lot further to explain why he’s going to be a success at any cost.

The man with the most sinister nickname in football, dubbed “the bull of butcher knives” as a result of his demonic running style of wanting to hurt people as he picks up yards for the Redskins.

That demonic running style must have been birthed by something though right? You can’t run nasty just because you’ve put in time in the gym, just ask Derrick Henry – He’ll tell you it needs a mindset as well.

Much like Will Grier, albeit for very different reasons, neither have lived a normal teenage upbringing.

Guice’s hero, his father, Derrius Guice Sr. was the victim of a cowardly act after a verbal argument resulted in 17 bullets being fired at Derrius Guice Sr. Knowing the pain of losing a parent young I still cannot imagine the levels of heartbreak after learning of how his father passed.

A friend of Derrius Jr. broke the news to him, news that Derrius openly admits he struggled to cope with. A heartbroken child couldn’t understand why his father wasn’t coming home lead to events where he jumped on his fathers casket at his funeral.

A few years before his father passed, his dad started calling him the “football man” in the house, despite this being a year before Guice ever laid foot on the hallowed turf.

Always remembering the name his father gave to him, Derrius Guice Jr took the first opportunity he could at High School to make the team. Guice Jr. wanted to teach the world a lesson stating “I was so angry at everything, I wanted to show the world not to mess with me”.

Growing up, the Guice family weren’t blessed with unlimited resources, often the location of a Louis Theroux style documentary, Derrius grew up in crime stricken poverty dominated by gang violence and regular homicides.

Derrius was often in the situation where he would need to ask people to buy him food, in some cases he’d have to shop lift to survive.

His mother eventually took the decision to transfer Guice to a school in a predominantly white area, having him focus on his school work and football instead of ‘hood life’ antics.

Redskins rusher has had a bad run

After a while, all Guice and a couple of his transferred friends struggled to adapt to their new lifestyle, or should I say the lifestyles of their peers. All of a sudden they were put in an environment where they felt beneath everyone else. The stress on his mental state lead to him being assigned a counsellor, Stephanie de la Houssaye.

Stephanie is on record saying that Guice was “a really frail child who really needed help…they were a little lost”.

One of the saddest things she said Stephanie de la Houssaye said was “When he [Derrius Guice Jr.] was a kid it was about survival, he didn’t have time to be a kid”.

Personally stricken by Derrius’ circumstances, following a similar path to Michael Oher in many respects, Stephanie de la Houssaye took it upon herself to invite Derrius
and his friends over for BBQs, family events. Even if he wasn’t invited he would politely ask the de la Houssaye household if he could come over.

They offered him and his friend a bed if they ever needed, which eventually became Guice’s part-time home. Looking back on it all Guice says “It felt good, it felt like something I needed, extra comfort, extra home.”

A statement that really gives evidence to the levels of poverty suffered in Guice’s neighbourhood, he would often take pictures of the refrigerator because he has never seen so much food before.

Eventually, this entire situation calls for a decision to be made by Stephanie. She could either keep things professional and she cease contact with Derrius Guice Jr. or she resigns from her position. The notion of being propositioned with something like this was easy, in prompt fashion the now former counsellor walked out on her employers, instead choosing to take care of Guice.

It’s a heartbreaking tale of loss, poverty and determination if we look at what it has lead to for Guice thus far in his career.

In all honesty, if anyone dares question the belief in someone’s mentality after living through the struggles Guice has I would be very surprised.

We’ve seen his career stats at college, we saw the arguments of whether he was better than Barkley and we all saw the devastating injury to his ACL before things even got going.

You’d be a fool to argue against his production and physical qualities, you’d be crazy to argue against his mental fortitude. The only real argument against him would be whether or not he can regain the form that saw him taken by the Redskins after his ACL injury

James Andrews, A world renown doctor in the athletic community carried out the surgery in August 2018, if he’s going to withstand the consequences of the injury then he has the best shot anyone can possibly have.

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