Jennings feels invisible

[Harlan Huckleby]

I get VERY angry when McCarthy repeatedly ingores my suggestions here in this forum. I don't feel heard.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Well, poor Greg. His feelings are hurt. I say we have a group session to let him air it out. Who wants to start?

Greg's handled the situation with aplomb, IMHO. Most WRs (e.g. Javon Walker) would have made a big stink of it. He was probably asked why he hasn't been involved, and he answered in a professional manner. I have no problem with what Jennings has said or done. Hell, I'm surprised it took him weeks to say anything.

[The Leaper]

Greg's handled the situation with aplomb, IMHO. Most WRs (e.g. Javon Walker) would have made a big stink of it.

I don't recall Walker complaining about the number of passes coming to him. Don't sit here and try to make Walker out to be some kind of whiner. The guy came into town, worked his ass off to become an impact player, and made a business decision to try to ensure the financial future of his family.

Unfortunately, everything after that seemed to fall apart in terms of his future in Green Bay...some under his control, some not. That doesn't change the fact that Walker was a respectable human being who did many admirable things in the community and kept his nose clean.

I don't like the whining of Jennings. Maybe when he posts a Pro Bowl caliber season like Walker did, he can start thinking about opening his yap.

[Partial]

Greg's handled the situation with aplomb, IMHO. Most WRs (e.g. Javon Walker) would have made a big stink of it.

I don't recall Walker complaining about the number of passes coming to him. Don't sit here and try to make Walker out to be some kind of whiner. The guy came into town, worked his ass off to become an impact player, and made a business decision to try to ensure the financial future of his family.

Unfortunately, everything after that seemed to fall apart in terms of his future in Green Bay...some under his control, some not. That doesn't change the fact that Walker was a respectable human being who did many admirable things in the community and kept his nose clean.

I don't like the whining of Jennings. Maybe when he posts a Pro Bowl caliber season like Walker did, he can start thinking about opening his yap.

HAHAHHHAHAHAHA

It is tough to ensure a financial future for your family on 600k a year??

I'd say asking for the ball and wanting to play so you can EARN your big salary a few years down the road is quite the opposite and more positive method for the team than HOLDING OUT and CAUSING A RUCKUS demanding the big bucks based on potential rather than production.

[HarveyWallbangers]

IMHO, Walker deserved the scorn. Jennings hasn't done anything close to what Walker did. He said he wasn't getting the ball, but would just continue to work hard.

Furious Walker wants out
Wide receiver asks Packers to trade him
By BOB McGINN

Green Bay - Even if the Green Bay Packers offered a lucrative new contract and quarterback Brett Favre retired, wide receiver Javon Walker still wouldn't resume his career in the National Football League's smallest city.

His agent, Kennard McGuire of Chicago, reiterated Friday what his client essentially told ESPN.com Thursday. Walker has played his final game for Green Bay.

"He has made it perfectly clear that he does not want a new contract from them," McGuire said. "The mind-set is there really is no future there. This young man only wants peace of mind. He does not feel that he would have peace of mind playing there."
...
According to McGuire, Ted Thompson still has hopes that the Packers will get Walker on the field for the final year of the five-year, $6.7 million contract that he signed in 2002 after being the 20th pick in the draft.

"He said he wanted to exhaust all means in working this situation out, which I applaud him for," McGuire said. "But everything that I'm hearing from the family, the answer is 'no.' "
...
"If I had to go back there, I'd retire," Walker told ESPN.com's Michael Smith. "I don't have to play. I really have no interest in being in a Green Bay Packers uniform or playing for Green Bay again."

[HarveyWallbangers]

Too hard to search for all the comments he might have made 5 years ago, but this is pretty interesting. BTW, I don't have any problem with these comments from Walker. They sound pretty similar to what Jennings said.

Walker ‘Frustrated’ By Offensive Difficulties

A 4-1 start pleases Javon Walker, The offense’s inability to generate consistent results, however, rankles him.

“We’re happy to get the win, but it’s frustrating,” Walker said in the locker room Monday. “I know I’m frustrated, because I’m used to scoring points, used to having a little bit more opportunity to put us in position to score — myself, Rod (Smith) and the other receivers — but I’m thinking (that) it’s still the early season, a lot of big games coming up. We’ve got to do something. We can’t keep saying the same thing every week, (that) maybe we’ll find (our groove).”

“We’ve got to do something.”
...
“Like I said, I’m a competitor, so I feel like any time that I’m out there and I can make a play, I feel like it’ll put us in position to score and then I’m going to live by that and stick to it. I feel like any time I can get the ball in my hands, something good can happen, and I think more points can be scored, but like I said, I’m just executing the plays that are called right now.”

He later added: “The only thing I can be accountable for is myself, and I just know the attitude I take towards the game, and when I’m out there playing, I just know sometimes I’m in the zone to where I know I can make plays, and I feel like if we take advantage of that, I feel like big things can happen — along with the other receivers. We all feel the same way and we all talk about it, so we’ll just come back in practice this week and see where it takes us going into Cleveland.”

Walker’s frustrations — and those of anyone on the offense — were understandable to Head Coach Mike Shanahan.

“If you’re not frustrated, then you won’t be in this business for long,” Shanahan said. “Our offense is used to being one of the top, and when you’re not, you go back, look at yourself and try to figure out why and you work on those things to make sure that by the end of the seasons, you’re one of the top teams.”

And when asked whether one-on-one chats with players who are “starting to simmer” were necessary, Shanahan dismissed the notion.

“Not at all. Starting to simmer? I think sometimes you (the media) take things out of perspective,” he said. “You have to be there, you have to be on the sideline, you have to be in the press box. That’s the nature of this job.

“You want guys who want the ball,” Shanahan said. “Because a guy expresses to you (media) who has made a number of big plays that he would like the ball as much as possible, Javon is mad at himself that he missed that slant route that could have kept the drive going in the second series of the third quarter. That may have been the difference of us scoring. So Javon knows in the back of his mind, he better take advantage of those situations when the ball hits him in the hands.”

[LaFours]

I would think feeling invisible might be a good thing. If you were invisible (as a wide receiver) the cornerbacks and safeties would have a hard time covering you. In fact, being invisible might be the best attribute a wide receiver could ask for...just kneel down beside the bed at night and pray to the good lord to allow you to wake up the next morning with the translucency of a pane of plexi-glass.

Of course being invisible would also come with its share of challenges. Greg would have to work very hard on his timing with Brett to ensure Brett knew what area he would be in to deliver the pass appropriately. And then there is the uniform issue. The league probably wouldn't allow him to play nude (which I assume he would have to do to acheive ultimate invisibility) due to the injury concerns (not to mention the negative press), so the team would need to put together a crack-team of scientists on the project of creating a uniform that would not hinder the invisibility factor he has already acheived.

I'm glad Greg brought this up...I just think his position on the issue is backwards.

[The Leaper]

It is tough to ensure a financial future for your family on 600k a year??

Not tangible to the argument at hand. Bill Gates doesn't need $150 billion either...that doesn't mean he isn't going to push to get everything he can, the same as you would in the same situation.

People who point out the dollar amount are more jealous than anything else. When it comes down to it, everyone fights to earn more and get their fair share...regardless of what income level they are at.

$2M isn't going to last a family 60 years when you factor in inflation and expenses. Walker doesn't have the smarts to pull down a healthy salary after football. His earning potential is playing football...and that earning potential can end at any time. To say he has no right to try to ensure his family's future is quite disturbing to me.

[The Leaper]

I'm glad Greg brought this up...I just think his position on the issue is backwards.

I agree.

A. Don't talk to the media about it.

B. Work you ass off until things start happening.

[CaliforniaCheez]

WR Jennings was cut today.


Now that the Giants cut him he is on waivers.

[the_idle_threat]

It is tough to ensure a financial future for your family on 600k a year??

Not tangible to the argument at hand. Bill Gates doesn't need $150 billion either...that doesn't mean he isn't going to push to get everything he can, the same as you would in the same situation.

People who point out the dollar amount are more jealous than anything else. When it comes down to it, everyone fights to earn more and get their fair share...regardless of what income level they are at.

$2M isn't going to last a family 60 years when you factor in inflation and expenses. Walker doesn't have the smarts to pull down a healthy salary after football. His earning potential is playing football...and that earning potential can end at any time. To say he has no right to try to ensure his family's future is quite disturbing to me.

$2 million---invested in nothing more than low-risk CDs or money markets at a conservatively-estimated rate of 4%---yields $80K per year in interest or dividends. A person can live VERY well on $80K per year, and wouldn't even have to touch the principal. The vast majority of us live on far less.

Money markets and CDs have been paying between 5 and 6% for the past several years, which moves that annual income to a range of $100K to $120K.

I don't think it's mere jealousy that makes us scoff when Walker claims to be insulted by an annual salary over $600K or Latrell Sprewell turns down $10M because he has to "feed his family." These guys have no idea of the realities faced by the majority of the folks sitting in the stands.

Incidentally, I heard on the radio that Sprewell's yacht was repossessed today, because Spree stopped making the payments. His family must have eaten up the whole $10M already.