Foote Wants To Play For The Lions
Posted by Mike Florio on April 28, 2009, 2:54 p.m.
Perhaps far bigger than the news that former Steelers linebacker Larry Foote wants to play for the Detroit Lions is that anyone wants to play for the Detroit Lions.
But, indeed, Foote wants to continue his career in the state he calls “home,” with the team everyone calls “really, really sucky.”
“Detroit is always No. 1,” Foote told the Detroit News. “I mean, my agent is talking to them about me coming home, and we’ll go from there. But no question about it, that’s my first choice.”
Foote also revealed that he had been pushing the team to cut him, and that at one point he thought he’d be traded.
“I’ve been forcing [this] the whole offseason,” Foote said. “I’ve been asking for it all offseason, asking for a trade, and I guess they finally did something. I wish they’d have done it a little earlier. Technically, I’m a free man now, but a lot of the money [in free agency] has been spent. . . .
“I don’t know what the Steelers were doing in the whole process. They kept saying they were trying to get a trade. I know they were in talks with the Lions. But I don’t know how it’s gonna work. My agent [Ken Kremer] said the Lions tried to get me, but I still don’t know how bad they want me.”
On one hand, it’s arguably a tad douchey for the Steelers to squat on Foote through the first two months of free agency and then cut him three days after picking a total of, um, zero linebackers in the draft. On the other hand, Foote’s agent could have avoided the situation by simply shifting $1 million of Foote’s $2.885 million base salary into a roster bonus due on the first day of the 2009 league year.
If the Lions aren’t interested in bringing to the franchise a guy who got two Super Bowl rings without buying either of them on eBay, then maybe the Cardinals will be inclined to consider Foote, given his connection to former Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt.
