From Matt Mosley of ESPN.com:

Of all the things I didn't expect to hear Sunday evening, the fact that former Redskins and Giants linebacker LaVar Arrington reached out to Osi Umenyiora to offer advice on how to handle his demotion ranked near the top. After all, Arrington hasn't exactly been a shrinking violet when it comes to his criticism of Dan Snyder over how he was treated with the Redskins.

But sure enough, Arrington saw the scowl on Umenyiora's face during the Giants loss to the Broncos and felt compelled to call his former Giants teammate Sunday morning. Mike Garafolo of the Star-Ledger caught up with Arrington via phone Tuesday.

"The one thing that really might have hit home was when I told him, ‘It’s easy to follow a leader when a leader is on top and everything is perfect,’" said Arrington, now a radio personality in Washington D.C. "'But when you’re going through what you’re going through right now, this is the time you actually really earn the respect and that type of loyalty where guys will die for you.’”

Pretty heady stuff. And it sounds like Umenyiora took Arrington's advice with the way he's handled this situation.