I wanted to wait a few days before I wrote anything on the Letroy Guion matter. That takes out jumping to conclusions and making assumptions, that takes out anything near biased I could have said one week ago, and that leaves me with straight fact and nothing besides it.
In the case you’ve been living in a cave for the past week, Green Bay Packers’ defensive tackle Letroy Guion was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for what was originally a traffic stop, and turned into Guion being in possession of $190,000 in cash (it is illegal to transport more than $10,000 in the United States–I found that out the day before Guion was arrested), 357 grams of marijuana, which is an estimated $1,600 worth, and a firearm. The good news from this is Guion had papers proving the $190,000 was from NFL paychecks and the firearm had proper permits to be carried… in the state of Minnesota.
Without further adieu.. Letroy’s mugshot and my open letter to Mr. Guion.
Dear Letroy,
Let’s make this clear: you made a very, very bad mistake. With the amount of marijuana that you were carrying, it’s clear it wasn’t the first or last time you had or planned on making the mistake of smoking marijuana. The matter of the fact is, Letroy, you got caught. Redhanded. There is not a word you can say to fix it, because transporting upwards of $4,000 worth of an illegal substance that has gotten players suspended for an entire season is very, very bad, my friend.
Let me make this clear, Letroy. I don’t think this one hiccup in your career makes you a bad person. Many owners and general managers will disagree, and that will cost you a possible seven-digit contract on several teams. You’re coming off of the best season you have ever had at the professional level. You filled a big hole for the Green Bay Packers, the third-best team this season, and you were almost guaranteed a starting job and a long-term contract with the Packers. When their man, B.J. Raji went down, you stepped in and up and became, in many people’s eyes, his replacement. Both B.J.’s and your contract are up, and the Packers planned on signing you. That was until, last Tuesday. You’d be playing, I remind you, long-term, alongside Clay Matthews, Julius Peppers, Datone Jones, Tramon Williams, and Sam Shields. Those are all great names to play on the defensive side of the ball with. You messed up a very good opportunity.
If I have learned something over the course of my life, growing up in Green Bay and watching close-to the Packers every play for the past seven or eight seasons, I have learned the defense has been a project since the Reggie White era. I have learned that this year’s defense was better than last’s, and you were a part of that. I have also learned the drug and other off-the-field issues are not something that Mark Murphy and Ted Thompson tolerate. Johnny Jolly was gone for several years. Erik Walden never saw himself in green and yellow again. Letroy, your name is about to be on this list. B.J. Raji was probably already packed up and likely in the talks with other teams. That was until Tuesday night. That was when the Packers threw every piece of paper that included information regarding your new contract down the paper shredder. That’s when B.J. Raji knew he was home.
That’s when you knew you weren’t.
Now you get to sit in regret and keep your fingers crossed, begging teams to give you another shot. That shot won’t be a long-term deal. That shot will not have a bigger number with a $ before it than it was last season. You made a life-changing mistake.
You know all this already, Letroy. I’m not going to keep wailing on what you already know. What I will do, though, is tell you what to do.
Stay off the map and let your agent do some behind the scenes work. Take a page out of the book of J.J. Watt and maybe go to a cabin or a house in the middle of nowhere and train your ass off. Keep your head on straight, kick up the dust, and become both a better football player and a better man. Prove to teams that you can be a big part of their defense and you deserve a second shot.
That is, if you want a second shot. It’s all on you, Letroy. It’s all on you.
Sincerely,
~Alex Strouf (@LetsGoAlex)
All Wisconsin Athletics 
WELL DONE ALEX !!!!