Welbourn Weighs in on Eagles

[Zanshin]

I thought This Article was pretty annoying.  Sounds to me like he's talking out of both sides of his mouth.

I mean, he took the Eagles offer because he wanted financial security and he knew that if he didn't get hurt there was the possibility that he'd be on the lower end of the pay scale within a few years.  But he was pissed anyway?

It was okay that the Eagles were going to take a chance on him and give him millions early in his career...but not okay when they didn't want to give him even more money?  I mean, both sides took a gamble.  It's retarded.

So, let's see...Welbourn was a valuable starter who was rewared with a multimillion dollar deal early in his career on a "sky's the limit" winning team.  Then he talks such trash about the team that he gets traded.

Now, he's missed playing in the Super Bowl, he's earned himself a bad reputation, he had to pack up and move, he didn't get a new contract or any additional money, and he's not even a starter on the Chiefs. 

Nice thinking, John.  That really worked out for you.

[PhillyGirl]

For those (aka Tomahawk) too lazy to register using bugmenot.com:

Revisiting Andy's '04 problem child
Welbourn got trade; still no new pact
By PAUL DOMOWITCH
pdomo@aol.com

RIVER FALLS, Wis. - Before Terrell Owens, there was John Welbourn.

Welbourn has walked in Owens' unhappy shoes. He has felt the same anger and frustration with the Eagles organization that Owens is feeling right now. Like Owens, he once asked the Eagles to renegotiate a contract. And like Owens, he was told, no, no, a thousand times no.

Also like Owens, Welbourn made a public issue of the Eagles' refusal to redo his contract, although the klieg lights weren't nearly as bright and not a single television helicopter circled his home.

With one incendiary interview on WIP (610-AM), the offensive lineman effectively managed to get Eagles coach and executive vice president Andy Reid to oblige his request for a trade, even after Reid had essentially told him that hell would freeze over before that would ever happen. ("John didn't force anything," Reid still insisted when he announced the trade.)

Owens' exit strategy thus far has been unsuccessful. But the night is still young.

"Andy and I had a conversation shortly before [the WIP interview]," said Welbourn, who was traded to Kansas City in April 2004 for a pair of middle-round draft choices. "He said, 'Hey, there isn't a single thing you can do to make me trade or cut you.' I was like, 'Oh, there isn't? We'll see about that.' It's like a little kid trying to see how far he can push the envelope.

"You regret having things happen under those circumstances. Maybe it was foolish or dumb. But I had made a decision [not to play for the Eagles]."

Welbourn, 29, had a little more justification in asking the Eagles to rework his contract than Owens does. To his everlasting regret, he agreed to an 8-year, $13 million contract extension with the Eagles in August 2001, after just one full season as a starter and just 27 months after the club had selected him in the fourth round of the '99 draft.

For a then-25-year-old who already had suffered one serious knee injury (a ruptured patella tendon in his left knee his rookie year) and had no idea how long his NFL career would last, the $3 million signing bonus the Eagles waved in front of him was an offer he couldn't refuse.

"I had come off a pretty serious knee injury," Welbourn said. "All of a sudden, they offer you this money. It puts you in a helluva situation.

"You're thinking, what are the chances that I'm going to last it out and play [for several years]? If I get hurt tomorrow, at least I've got this money on the table. You look at guys like [former Eagles safety] Damon Moore. He left that money [a contract offer] on the table, then wrecked his knee and what happens? They say, 'See you later,' and he's never the same.

"They make it just enough money that you feel you have to take it, but never enough money where you're really satisfied about it. My agent even told me, 'Hey, you sign this, you've got to know that, 4 years down the line, if you end up staying healthy and becoming a good player, you're going to be underpaid?' "

His agent was right. Welbourn stayed healthy enough to start 39 games at left guard for the Eagles over the next 3 years and help them get to three straight NFC title games. Fractured a fibula in the first game of the 2002 season and returned 5 weeks later. Tore the meniscus in his right knee in '03 and was back in the lineup 2 weeks after surgery.

Unhappy with the inconsistent play of left tackle Tra Thomas in '03, the Eagles approached Welbourn after the season and told him they were thinking of moving him to Thomas' spot. Welbourn had no objections to the move, but felt the Eagles should raise his pay grade if he was going to be playing the most important position on the offensive line.

"Any time you go out and give it all for your team, even if it might be to the detriment of your health, and you don't feel that type of loyalty on their side, it makes you angry," he said. "I've always been a pretty levelheaded guy. But I can also be a little hotheaded when provoked.

"When things progressed the way they did, it became, like, who's willing to go further? And it ended up being me going as far as I thought I had to go to get traded. It was unfortunate. Because I had a lot of friends on the Eagles. It was a great situation. We won a ton of games. I was sad to go. But when things deteriorate so badly and leave the negative taste in your mouth that it left in mine, you just don't want to be there anymore."

Sometimes, though, you have to be careful what you wish for. Welbourn got the trade he wanted, but still doesn't have a new contract. And he might not even have a starting job this year.

He started 10 games at right tackle for the Chiefs last season before a right hip flexor strain ended his season and his hopes for a new deal. With second-year man Kevin Sampson penciled in as the starter there this season, Welbourn has been moved inside as a backup to guards Brian Waters and Will Shields.

"I definitely had an illusion coming here that I'd get the money I wanted," Welbourn said. "Thus far, it hasn't happened. Is there still a chance? Yeah. With the Eagles, there was no chance. They weren't going to do anything.

"If I was going to be paid the same money, I guess I should have stayed where I was. But resentment builds. After everything that went down, for me to have stayed there, I would've felt like a bitch.

"Sometimes pride is a dangerous thing. But in terms of the quality of the organization, I think I got traded to a pretty good place."

Nothing was more difficult for Welbourn than watching the Eagles make it to the Super Bowl last season without him.

"I was sick about it," he said. "You've got to remember, I was one of those guys who was in Andy's first draft. I was one of those guys who made that [turnaround] happen. It's tough to be a part of something and help build it and be one of the guys that drives it, and then leave and go to a different place where I didn't really have a hand in creating it.

"To see them excel last year, it was kind of bittersweet. But I got a chance to see my friends play in the biggest game of their lives, and I was excited for them. But you're sick yourself because that could've been me."

[rjs246]

I really don't care what Welbourn has to say about this team anymore. He should probably worry about getting his job back on his own team.

[jeffreyjpa]

Yep, Welbourn is an idiot. The fact that the Chiefs traded for him and are letting him continue to play on that same "unfair" contract he signed with the Eagles is poetic justice. Why isn't he ripping Carl Peterson and Dick Vermeil now for their "huge egos and presence"?

But, what else should we expect from a guy who majored in Rhetoric in college...

[Zanshin]

I forget-- who did we get with the pick we received for Welbourn?

[MadMarchHare]

What a dumbass.  At least he seemed to have figured it out.  Just trying to save face, IMO.

Wasn't that the pick we used to get Herremans?

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

I love it.

He knows he absolutely farged himself in the A by forcing the trade, but he's too proud to completely admit it or accept that he will never see the big dollars in KC at this point, now that he's not even a starter.  He should have kept his mouth shut, proved to Andy that he was a viable LT, and then he would've had a reason to get the money.

You farg with the Eagles FO, and you will not be happy with the results.

I forget-- who did we get with the pick we received for Welbourn?

We got Tapeh in 2004 and Moats in 2005 from the picks received for Welbourn.

[PhillyGirl]

I forget-- who did we get with the pick we received for Welbourn?

Nevermind, FF posted it already .

[Zanshin]

Moats and Tapeh for a backup OL?  Sold!

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Moats and Tapeh for a backup OL?  Sold!

Tapeh's value is only slightly above Thomas Hamner's right now.

[ice grillin you]

lol

yeah i was about to say...

moats for a backup OL?  Sold!

[MURP]

towards the end of that article, Welbourn sounds exactly like Trotter and Hugh in the way he thinks it was somewhat of a mistake to leave the team.   haha, suck it. 

[PhillyGirl]

haha, suck it. 

  My thoughts exactly.

[Rome]

Wow.  Another spoiled crybaby millionaire crying the blues with two loaves of bread under each arm.

Seems to me that he should be spending more time trying to crack the starting lineup in K.C. than responding to interview requests from out-of-town hacks.

[PhillyPhreak54]

 

F You Welbourn.

I used to like him. One of my favorite OL's especially because he took a shot at ending Sapp's chances of procreating in Camden again.

I like the "dilemma" he was faced with. Oh my! The Eagles waved just enough money in my face and I took it but nw I want more because I am a foundation of this team!

Bullshtein, John. Have fun backing up in KC you scrote.