As an awkward, ugly situation persists in Washington between the organization and G.M. Scot McCloughan, on-the-record (or off-the-record) details are hard to come by. Thursday’s PFT Live included several from McCloughan’s agent.
Peter Schaffer joined the show, primarily to discuss one of his other clients — Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon. The conversation then turned to McCloughan. And Schaffer, while somewhat guarded given the sensitivities of the situation, made a couple of factual assertions.
First, he said that McCloughan is “very healthy,” “is in contact with the team,” and “doing stuff to help the team move forward.” Second, Schaffer said that the absence is not related to alcohol. Obviously, speculation that a recurrence of past issues with alcohol has been rampant, fueled in part by on-the-air speculation from Washington employee Chris Cooley as to whether McCloughan is “drinking again.”
Schaffer also said that there have been no discussions to this point about what will happen going forward, which caused him to refute the notion (as reported by the Washington Post) that a parting of the ways is “inevitable.”
Ultimately, Schaffer painted a far different picture than the one emanating from the various reports that have emerged in recent days.