This whole scenario strikes me as stinking to high-heaven.
There must be so much going on here that is being swept under the rug. A lot of it won't come out for years or never at all, but there is something more going on here with the whole Ratliff scenario.
There is the whole number of injuries, particularly hamstring issues, this team has been suffering last few seasons.
There is the whole longer than expected recovery times for a number of injuries - either misdiagnosed, misreported, or frequent setbacks occurring.
I'd go back as far as Jenkins not wanting to rehab with the team and wonder about that now as well.
Then we get to Ratliff himself.
What really spurred on a physical and strongly vocal confrontation in the locker room between him and Jones.
The guy has a DUI shortly after a teammate is killed by another teammate in an alcohol related motor vehicle accident.
Rat has been "passive aggressive" and then not even "passive". He talks about not being a distraction, and then insinuates all sorts of inflammatory things in this latest interview. He hints at problems with rehab staff, and that his injury was not honestly presented by the team, etc.
Then we have Jerry, who has never really struck me as the "soft type" but that has paid Rat a ton of money on what in retrospect is turning out to be a very poor value early contract extension - so he is trying to spin doctor the whole thing. But why Jerry is putting up with so much of this, is either desperation to have this guy play at a decent level, OR, Rat somehow seems to have an honest beef with how his injuries are being treated or his expectations for recovery have somehow been unfair or unrealistic.......
Something is incredibly weird about the whole thing though.
Hard for me to believe that this player really wants to play for this organization any more, despite all his team-mate solidarity type talk. And Jerry can't honestly believe he is close to coming back and playing at an "all pro" level any time soon or any time in the future at all.
Last I remember Rat was off to the side doing rehab training at camp, then disappeared. Do we honestly believe he tore his groin and/or hamstring in the fitness test at camp? That smelled fishy then and smells even fishier now.
What kind of fitness/running test do they run where you tear a groin or hamstring and/or aggravate at sports hernia? I thought it was just wind-sprints in a certain period of time - and that is straight ahead running, with no cutting and planting and twisting etc....
Bottom line, is that if the organization is truly relying on this player to be a huge part of this season or the future, I think they are a bit nutty!
I liked the old Rat, and how he played undersized for years, but something has changed with him and/or his relationship with the team, and nobody is telling the truth about the situation now.
Not a great situation for the team. Tough on a young coach like Garrett to deal with crap like that.
Curious to what the hell happened here.
Anyone remember scissor-gate with Irvin and I think it was Everett McIver (the oline guy, who almost had his jugular severed by Michael?)....
This Rat stuff is some WEIRD stuff. Maybe being paranoid, but it really seems he wants to just let it all out about how he feels about injuries, rehab, etc and how things are handled at the ranch..
It's too bad, Rat would be a resurrected Glover in the 4-3 for us, if healthy and happy......
