Statement from the titan organization regarding

[Clash of the Titans 1]

http://www.titansonline.com/news/newsmain_....php?PRKey=3697

 

We have communicated with Steve (McNair) and Bus (Cook) since the fall that we could handle Steve's salary cap figure into the new league year (2006), but we are not willing to carry that number into the season. We have spent time working in good faith to renegotiate Steve's contract, but have not yet arrived at a mutually satisfactory resolution.

 

With the offseason conditioning program underway, we have no choice but to protect the club and its future from the possibility of having a significant amount of our salary cap at risk in a single player should he sustain a major injury. This is entirely a risk management problem and not a reflection of the enormous respect we have for Steve, for what he means to our franchise, and the huge contributions he has made as a player and as a person. It was unfortunate the way this played out yesterday, but we think both Steve and Bus understand the team's position. Other clubs facing the same dilemma have arrived at the same conclusion we did.

 

We will continue our efforts to resolve the contract difficulties and look forward to Steve returning when this is completed.”

 

translation as follows......

 

the statement doesn't say "we previously have banned mcnair from the practice facility" or "we told him ahead of time."............what it DID say is that cook knew way ahead of time the Titans could not live with his cap number for this year...with the status that negotiations have gotten to, cook should have anticipated this scenario (i assume he has been a party to the negotiations)....... he had to have known that things were going south, and that the titans were not willing to risk being stuck with the full salary this year.....

 

although mcnair has a 23.4 mill cap number this year if he was to get hurt the titans would have to absorb only 10 mill...regardless it's looking less and less he will return....he wants a GUARANTEED 22mill for 2 seasons...latest reports have the titans only wanting him to give him 9 mill in guaranteed money for 2006 with no automatic guarantees for 2007...he's probably not even legitimate trade bait now as teams know the deal and won't trade for a player that will likely be cut out of respect after the draft

 

personally, i think it's time to move on in another direction anyway and i support this latest move by the higher ups....the man's best years are behind him and he can't stay healthy....he's got a bad back, a repaired sternum and supposed bad attitude now in the twilight of his career... this team isn't going to make the playoffs anyway so why pay him this much when he won't even make it through the year unscathed....

 

and where there's smoke there is fire and there have been too much discussion the past few months about mcnair being a locker room malcontent and refusing to help the younger wrs....as for his character that's a little overblown as well...i myself have my own personal story from seeing mcnair out on the town live in person in his heyday....

 

should be interesting the next month or so.....i prdict he refuses to budge on his contract desires and gets cut like eddie george