I’m on Rick Smith’s side, at least until new information comes to light.

For anyone who doesn’t read Chris’s site, www.houstondiehards.com, apparently Pancakes McClain said on 610 that Dunta refused a contract with 23 Million guaranteed.

I’m not sure how McClain knows this, but if it’s true, then Dunta has absolutely no one to blame but himself.

If Dunta had never been injured, and played the second half of 2007 and all of 2008 like we remember him playing the first half of 2007, then 23 Million guaranteed would be on the low side of reasonable. But he was injured, and his comeback was amazing, but he did not prove that he was worth anywhere near 23 Million.

Basically, Rick Smith offered to pay Dunta more than he is realistically worth, and Dunta not only rejected the offer, but he then went to the media to complain about getting the Franchise Tag.

But I would never discount the possibility that the team is using its mouthpiece (that would be Pancakes) to make Dunta look like the bad guy here. Look at opinion on this blog: most people were surprised and somewhat sympathetic when Dunta opened his mouth. Now all of a sudden people are surprised and somewhat not-so-sympathetic because a known mouthpiece has reported that the Texans offered him $23 million.

Who leaked that? What could their possible motivation be? The only motivation would be to keep the moral highground and make Dunta look greedy.

This may sound contrary to other comments I’ve left below, but it reinforces my point. I still fully expect these guys to sit down and hash it out and Dunta will issue some statement about how he was misquoted or misinterpreted or find some other way to walk his statement back.

This may be unfamiliar territory for Texans fans, but this kind of shit happens all the time in the NFL. Does anyone remember Sean Jones from the Oilers? He used to retire right before training camp so that he could maximize his negotiating leverage with the front office. All of this tends to be forgotten once the contract is signed.

Dunta may stay or he may leave, but he’s gotta know that he’ll never get an offer that good from any other team. Which means that he’s pretty much shot himself in the foot by going public. He really should have thought about this a little more.

I tend to believe the $23 million figure because Smith knows if that is not accurate then eventually he will be made to look like an ass, a la A Rod, Clemens, et al. In time the truth will come out and Smith is too smart to blatantly lie about the negotiations just to justify the F tag and win the short term PR battle. This is bigger than just Dunta. Smith’s credibility impacts the entire organization. What player wants to run through walls for a lying backstabbing asshole of a GM? Noone. The reputation of a teams management is an important factor in not only retaining its stars, but in attracting talent from other teams. Smithiak are building a good thing here, and leaking misinformation to the press would just undermine much of what they have accomplished to date. Dunta will realize in time that he made a mistake. For the Texans’ sake, I hope that comes sonner than later. The best thing he can do is apologize for his childish behavior, continue to negotiate, and come to his senses and accept the more than fair offer the Texans made.

I’m not gonna’ say something egotistically self serving like I told you so, but having no inside information whatsoever, I think my comment in yesterdays thread was spot on:
I stated:
I do not believe that Smith made the completely unqualified statement to Dunta that he would not be franchised. I believe that is what Dunta wanted to hear. We all do that. I am sure that early in the negotiations that both parties expressed a desire to come to a mutually beneficial agreement and that franchising would not be necessary, or words to that effect. Dunta or his agent took that to mean that he would not be franchised. They would both be foolish to think that franchising was never a possibility.

Dunta has to know that if the Texans overpay for him, then that is detrimental to the progress of the team. If he insists in placing his needs above the team, then I am praying for the extremely unlikely event that some moron will make him an offer and we can snag two #1’s. Dunta just went from a guy that could have been the face of the franchise to just another me first jerk like TO. What a disappointment.

While I think it’s absurd that Dunta allegedly turned down $23 mil guaranteed, let’s not forget that Scrabble just signed the richest deal for a DB in league history and Kelvin Hayden just got $22 mil guaranteed from the Colts. I could absolutely see Dunta looking at those two deals and figuring that he should come down somewhere close to in between, even with the injury. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I could see that rationale.

Additionally, I don’t think we should ignore the fact that Dunta’s injury likely impressed upon him the reality that NFL careers are gone in a snap and that a player’s only as secure as his guaranteed money. This ain’t the NBA. This ain’t MLB. Here today, cut tomorrow.

I’m not trying to excuse the fallacy of Dunta allegedly turning down the amount of guaranteed dough he allegedly set out to make. But I do think we should at least attempt to take other very real factors into account.

is a word used quite often by our organization to describe most of our players. Shit I even use it in arguments I get into when I’m defending my beloved Texans. This unclassy move that Dunta committed damn near broke my heart, out of all the Texans players, past and present, I always applauded the fact that he let his performance do the talking instead of running his damn mouth to the media like some unclassy cowgirl.

Deceiption?? If I am remembering correctly Dunta was asking for 22-25 Mil in guarantees, if Smithiaks statements are true, then he was offered the money he was looking for. So if Dunta declined that offer, after stating that was the amount he was looking for, wasnt he misleading the fans and the organization? Smith said they exceeded the value they had marked on him. Chris Gamble got 23M, Hayden got 22.5, I know Namdi probably got more but he is an elite corner so much so that teams dont even throw to his side of the field. If Dunta thinks he deserves that kind of money, then, and it kills me to say this, I really hope that someone offers us the 2 1st rounders for him. Love the guy but he is not a shutdown corner, I dont know if he ever will be.

Training Camp?? How in the hell is he gonna make a statement about not being at training camp? First of all he is not good enough to not go to training camp and come into the season performing like a top corner. When I first saw this story break I had sympathy for Dunta but he refused the offer of 23M guaranteed, which in my opinion exceeds his worth and then got mad cause he got tagged, Thats business Dunta suck it up, act like a damn proffesional and do your job, hell work on becoming that shutdown corner that you want to get paid like. Totally 100% on Smithiaks side on this one.