Antoine Winfield has been one of my favourite Viking players since signing with the team. But if his recent no-shows at the team's mandatory minicamp and organized team activities are at all related to the stalled talks on a contract extension, then this is probably the beginning of a irreconcialiable breakdown in what's been a mostly happy union between the Vikes and Winfield.
Some Viking fans will consider Winfield's action unprofessional and disloyal. But I find no fault in them. Football is a brutal sport and management's loyalty to players lasts only as long as that player is useful to them. Not that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, that's the way it has to be if a franchise is going to remain good for a long time.
But just as I find no fault in a team casting aside a star player who is past his prime, neither do I hold it against that star if – in the last year of his contract – he chooses to stay away from these voluntary (but not really) OTAs and mandatory minicamps to gain some leverage to secure one last big payday. Winfield knows he won't be able to earn $6-million a year for much longer. And he knows that he could tear up his knee or rupture his Achilles next season and never sign another NFL contract. So why not try to pressure the Vikings into signing him to a lucrative extension?
Besides, at 32, Winfield could use the extra rest.
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3 comments:
Didn't Winfield skip some stuff last year? If he did, it didn't seem to have any negative effect on the team or his play. I don't see what the big deal is. I think this kind of stuff would get ignored if there were other football stories to tell in early June, but there aren't.
Winfield attended everything last year. It was in 2007 that he stayed away from these activities in protest over Childress' handling of the QB situation. He then had his most injury-plagued year after skipping all those OTAs and working out on his own. But I don't think the injuries and him not working out with the team are related at all.
Well, since I don't know how to make a link. Cut and paste this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mie9hhQTUM
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