It was once said:
The first time someone calls you a horse, you punch them on the nose, the second time someone calls you a horse, you call them a jerk but the third time someone calls you a horse, well then perhaps it's time to go shopping for a saddle.
Well if that holds true, then it's time to call Anquan Boldin a jerk. The first time rumors surfaced that Boldin asked for a trade he denied them, but he may have a much more difficult time denying the talk this time around. Numerous reports have come out that Boldin, through
his agent, has asked the Cardinals for a trade, again, and this time he went into more detail. He blasted the organization when he reported to camp, but this time his most critical words were reserved for head coach Ken Whisenhunt, whom he no longer communicates with (according to Q):
"At this point we have no relationship, and I don't see that changing," Boldin told NFL Network. "It's just gotten to a point where I think lines were crossed. If you ask me, coaches should be coaches, management should be management, and I don't think those lines should be crossed. But when you cross those lines, you put yourself in position for things like this to happen."
"They made different promises saying they would take care of me," Boldin said. "It all goes back to last year, even before camp. I sat in on a meeting with Whisenhunt and the (team owners) Bidwills, and their exact words were they wouldn't let me go into this season without a new deal. Well, here we are a year later and still no new deal. The deals they put on the table were slaps in the face as opposed to deals that would take care of me. For me, it's an uncomfortable situation. I feel lied to by the organization. It's hard for them to ask me to give me my all when it hasn't been reciprocated."
The most surprising part of the article though is when Boldin talked about the deals that the organization didn't make this offseason because for a guy who denied ever asking for a trade, this sounds an awful lot like a guy who knew exactly what was going on:
Boldin would prefer to be traded and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, asked the Cardinals back in April to trade his client. Boldin is convinced that
"turned down a bunch of teams willing to give up first-round picks. They clearly don't want to get a deal done." Arizona
It's hard to tell where this is headed because Boldin's only leverage is to simply stop showing up for work, which Kent Somers claims, is a possibility. He says that sources have told him that Boldin is so unhappy that it's hard to even come to practice and that it's a possibility that Boldin could simply leave camp. That's pretty hard to imagine considering the fines that he would face ($15K a day) and Boldin seems like a smarter individual than that but either way this doesn't sound like a situation that is going to go away any time soon. While I'm not concerned with Boldin's effort on the field, I do wonder if he'll put in the work from Monday to Saturday if he's truly as unhappy as these reports make him out to be. I also wonder how this will bleed over into the regular season. Surely we won't have to tune into see Boldin doing situps in his own driveway like another Drew Rosenhaus client, but I wouldn't have thought it would go this far either. Is this big enough to derail a promising season or will Boldin be the same player once he puts the pads on and a microphone isn't in his face? Should the Cardinals try to do anything drastic (like a trade) this close to the season?