We’ve been somewhat amazed by the extent to which NFL observers have assumed that the recent one-day walkout staged by Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora had nothing to do with his contractual status, simply because he hasn’t publicly expressed in the recent past dissatisfaction with his contract.
He didn’t need to.
Umenyiora previously has made it clear that he wants a new deal. Though he vowed not to be a problem, he said he expected a new contract after the 2008 season.
“Winter time is when I think things would be taken care of,” Umenyiora said in June 2008, according to the New York Daily News.
The fact that Umenyiora missed the entire season due to a knee injury likely has made the Giants leery about proceeding. But it likely hasn’t made Umenyiora less interested in getting a new deal.
Regardless of things he has said over the past month.
Sure, Umenyiora tried to explain that last year’s injury has given him perspective, and that he doesn’t “even really think about [getting a new deal] anymore.”
If he says that enough, he might eventually believe it.
A little.
“The only thing I know is if you constantly think about [getting more money] it’ll never happen,” Umenyiora said in early August. “So I tried to take my mind off it. I tried to focus on playing football. Even though you can’t compare it to the contracts that are being handed out now, it’s still a lot of money that I was given. I have enough money saved up where I don’t really have to be pushing for a new contract.”
Sorry, but we don’t buy it. And the kind of rash, uncharacteristic behavior we recently saw from Umenyiora doesn’t happen without some type of underlying frustration that bubbles to the surface under circumstances that otherwise would be seen as no big deal.
So, surely, the root of this most recent outburst is the fact that Umenyiora still wants that new contract. No matter how hard he tries to put it out of his mind, it’s not going away.
