We made the point yesterday that Greg Jennings, despite what he said previously, cared about one thing and one thing only in signing with the Minnesota Vikings — money. That alone wouldn’t make us classify a person as selfish though. Hell, we all like money.
Then Jennings went on Jim Rome on Monday and showed his true colors, criticizing the Green Bay Packers for not stepping up and for not giving him the ball enough.
First, he talked about their contract offer.
“In my opinion, was it a good strong (offer)? Absolutely not. Again, that’s what they were wanting to do, but it wasn’t, no, no, no.”
We’d beg to differ of course. Maybe Jennings wasn’t aware of this, but no one was banging down his door. The Packers and Vikings were the only teams interested in him. It was reported that the Patriots were also interested, but the Patriots have since stated they never offered Jennings anything. So the Packers’ $8 million per season offer fell $2 million per season short of the Vikings’ offer.
Frankly, the Vikings were desperate for a receiver. No receiver on their roster had more than 500 yards receiving in 2012. So they overpaid, which is what desperate teams do. Considering the much more accomplished Wes Welker got $6 million per season and the younger Danny Amendola got the same, the Vikings overpaid by about $4 million per season.
Anyone who says the Packers offer wasn’t strong is delusional, but that’s obviously something else Jennings is. It’s also been reported that Jennings asked the Packers for $15 million per. That would have made Jennings the second-highest paid receiver in the NFL, behind only Calvin Johnson. He would have outpaced Larry Fitzgerald by about $1 million per season at that rate. He also would have been the highest-paid player on the Packers by an average of about $5 million per season.
A joke is what that is.
Here’s where it gets better.
Jennings says he wanted a fresh start because… wait for it… he wasn’t getting enough balls in Green Bay!
“I understand that they have a lot of talent … and they’re going to have to showcase that talent, and we all can’t be as successful as we want to be individually with so many guys around,” said Jennings.
“You want to have individual success, you want to have overall team success, but you want to feel like you’re a part of it, and it’s hard. It would be hard for me to sit here and say, man I was in a great position, I could have thrived. And I believe this with all my heart, not one guy over there can really maximize their potential because of the depth we had.”
Translation: I don’t care about team goals, only my personal stats.
No wonder you signed with the Vikings. Certainly won’t have anyone to compete for balls with there. Certainly won’t have to worry about any team success either, but hey, pad those stats, buddy!
One day you’ll make it into the Minnesota Vikings Hall of Fame! It’s filled with trophies!
Did anyone know Jennings was a such a diva? I mean, we shouldn’t be all that surprised — he’s a wide receiver. Still, we’ve never seen any indication that Jennings was such a me, me, me guy before.
Now we know and now we can say this.
Good riddance.