An employee that is responsible for 30% of his team's offensive production.
The Eagles owner shouldn't be applauded but ridiculed. This situation didn't just pop up last week - this has been brewing for months and could have been taken care of during the offseason with no damage to his team.
Making barbed remarks marks after the fact doesn't help his team. The owner wouldn't have needed to make any remarks if he had handled the situation appropriately during the offseason.
Brian Westbrook might be next. For some reason, the Eagles think that it is a good idea to play hardball with their players and then force them to stick around. It's ok to play hardball, but you don't keep the players around afterward - that is just poison.
The Eagles owner is guilty of a self inflicted wound - certainly nothing to be applauded for.
TO was mad because his 100 football touchdown was ignored by the team.
Westbrook has been offered two contracts. The first, equal to Dominick Davis' deal in Houston. The second, equal to Lamont Jordan's deal with Oakland, which included a 9.5 million dollar signing bonus and 4.5 million per season. Westbrook turned them both down.
As far as forcing players to stick around, they've never used a franchise tag on a player, and they won't start with Westbrook. Let him try to get 4.5 million per on the open market, with Shawn Alexander, Edgerrin James, Jamal Lewis, DeShawn Foster and Ahman Green also out there.
Westbrook's problem is, he's read his own press clippings. He thinks he's the second coming of Marshall Faulk. He's not. Westbrook is limited by his inability to run between the tackles. He's strictly an outside runner/receiver. Which is why the Eagles aren't even trying to get anything done on the ground. They know he can't.
He is there because of his abilities not his mouth. And his mouth has gotten so annoying that it outweighs his abilities. There are quite a few atheletes who are BETTER than him at their positions, and yet they don't mouth off all the time. You can tout that 30% offensive production all you want to. He was also responsible for about 80% of the BS mouthiness that came from the team too. His mouth outweighed his production. Apologize for him all you want. He needs to grow up.
If he had that same attitude without the ability on the field, where exactly do you think he'd be in the world? You REALLY need to think about that. He'd be a nobody nothing with a mouth, a minimum wage job, and a criminal record.