Gunnails

Patriots | Samuel will not report to team's offseason program
Mon, 12 Mar 2007 06:02:56 -0800

Albert Breer, of the MetroWest Daily News, reports New England Patriots CB Asante Samuel will not report to the team's offseason program without a new deal in place, according to his agent, Alonzo Shavers. Although franchise-tagged free agents are allowed to participate, most players do not in order to protect their financial interests. Samuel is scheduled to earn $7.79 million in 2007 as the team's franchise player.
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no real surprise here.

KontradictioN

****! Fingers crossed that the deal is re-worked. He's a major asset to our defense.

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CREDIT - Sicilian

BelichickFan

It's kind of irrelevant, with no guaranteed money there's no reason to risk injury for now. Once he signs the one year deal, if it comes to that, and it's guaranteed then he'll be OK to practice and play.

Gunnails

Ok here is the main part of the article published in Sunday's Boston Herald:

Samuel holds out hope for right deal
By Albert Breer/ MetroWest Daily News
Monday, March 12, 2007 - Updated: 01:44 AM EST

With a wide smile on his face, Asante Samuel [stats] denounced the perception yesterday that he’s a disgruntled employee of the Patriots [team stats]. But the fourth-year cornerback, who is not yet under contract, has been around long enough to know how quickly things can change.

After expressing his satisfaction with the progress in negotiations, Samuel was asked if his happiness meant a holdout wasn’t in the cards. He wouldn’t go that far.

“Like I said, everything’s looking good,” he responded after briefly pausing to consider the question. “We’ll have to see what happens.”


Reached later by phone, Samuel’s agent Alonzo Shavers added: “Everything right now is good.”

Shavers did say that Samuel will not report to the team’s offseason program, scheduled to open a week from today, without a new deal in place. While franchise-tagged free agents are allowed to participate, most stay away as a measure to protect their financial interests.

“I’m not going to talk too much about (the negotiations),” Samuel said. “But they’re happy, I’m happy, so everybody else should be happy too.”

“This is my (professional) birthplace,” he said. “This is my first team and I hope I’ll never have to play for another team.”

That feeling, in part, is why Samuel didn’t feel slighted on Feb. 16 when slapped with the tag.

Fixit

I wouldn't, either.

ironwasp

Nothing going on here, folks, move along.

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patchick

Me neither. There are millions and millions of dollars on the line. This isn't a holdout, it's just prudence.