Sheldon Brown Brings Knife to Gunfight, Then Goes Back and Gets His Gun

Just hours after newly disgruntled Eagles cornerback Sheldon Brown announced via Sal Paolantonio that he was seeking a trade out of Philly (and subsequent raise) after he had been "disrespected" by the Eagles in his attempts to address his contract situation privately, the Eagles responded, ahem, very decisively:

“It’s very unfortunate and counterproductive that Sheldon has chosen to go public with his feelings about his situation. After thorough evaluation by himself and discussions with his family and agents, he chose to accept an extension of his rookie contract early that provided his family financial security for the rest of his life. It removed any concerns about health or performance that all other players in his draft class had to worry about. He has three years remaining on that contract and, after taking the signing bonus and his first two years of salary into account, we feel that Sheldon is being paid fairly. Focusing only on a player’s salary for a given year is not a valid analysis.

“There have been league MVP’s, Super Bowl champion quarterbacks, and perennial Pro Bowlers who have been in a similar situation. All of their teams have required them to wait until their contract expired or there was only one year remaining before any adjustment took place. It is only in the most extraordinary, in fact, less than a handful of circumstances in the last ten years that any players two new years into a contract with three years left have been adjusted. We don’t think this qualifies as an extraordinary circumstance.

“Sheldon’s comments under the circumstances actually serve to devalue him in a trade if we were willing to consider it; which we are not.”

Yikes! The story hadn't even hit the morning edition of the fishwrappers, nor had we seen any direct quotes from Sheldon (though we appreciated Bob Brookover's attempts to chase down Brown's wife), and already Joe Banner is on WIP and releasing statements detailing precisely where Sheldon Brown would be welcome to shove it.

Seemed like a pretty aggressive response from the front office, no?  Especially since a full complaint hadn't yet even been voiced.  A "No comment" and a few weeks of idle speculation was more in line with my expectations.  But we'd be the last one to accuse Joe Banner of being a dummy (or deaf to the PR atmosphere with his customers).  He knew that Sheldon wasn't any ordinary player, at least in terms of dealing with the media.  That is, when your most quotable player starts talking, you'd better respond before Sheldon can start cracking wise with the beat reporters.      

By this evening, Les Bowen had the goods direct from Sheldon, and Brown offered the initial salvo of what he admitted would be somthing he'd be "answering questions about all season."  The best of the bunch was his response to Banner's line about how he was devaluing his trade value by speaking out:

As for diminishing his trade value by speaking out, Brown said the Eagles just traded for Buffalo tackle Jason Peters, who held out last summer, with three years left on a contract. "They just traded for a guy who diminished his trade value last year," Brown said.

Zing!  Attaguy, Sheldon.  Can't say that we're thrilled that you're cheesed off, but at least it'll make for a some solid quotes over the next few months.

(And to think: we haven't even heard from McNabb yet....)