Asante Samuel was a guest of 97.5 the Fanatic today and made it pretty clear that he didn't like the constant trade speculation around him this season. PFT had the transcript.
"Definitely, it doesn’t sit well with me," Samuel said. "Definitely, I’ve been nothing but what they expected me to be when they brought me there... Definitely, it doesn’t sit well with me. And obviously they don’t want me there, so life goes on. So we’ll see where I’ll be at."
Asante said that people shouldn't expect his unhappiness to affect his play.
"Well, as long as I’m getting paid I’m gonna do my job," Samuel said. "So whoever [is] cutting the check, I do my job. . . . So I’m not worried about that. I just know in the back of my head they don’t want me there. So, you know, that’s not gonna leave. They put it out there so everybody could know that, so I know that and everybody knows that. So it’s in the back of my head. And Asante Samuel is a business entity first, so I’m going to make sure I handle my business accordingly."
Honestly, can anyone argue with anything he said? Yes it is obvious that they don't want him anymore unless you just think all the rumors before the season and before the trade deadline were just made up. And yes, he absolutely has been nothing but what they expected him to be when they brought him here.
It's just that "what he is" they don't want anymore. And frankly, I'd say the Eagles only have themselves to blame here. I think it's perfectly reasonable for Asante to be annoyed by the rumors and I think we can all agree that he's drawn the right conclusion about what the Eagles think of him. So if the Eagles didn't want him, they should have dealt him. They can't have thought they could shop him around the league all year and it wouldn't be reported. And they have to have expected him to be annoyed by the rumors...
So, do we think this could affect the way he plays? He is getting paid very well for this season and since "Asante Samuel is a business entity first" you'd expect him to play hard. He is kind of a guy who has always done his own thing, so as long as he's on the field I think he'll go on playing his game as usual.
By the way, a funny thing happened when I went to find a photo for this story. We have this little tool that we can input a name and will bring back all the AP photographs related to that name. So I search Asante Samuel and the follow three pictures were on the first page. They're after the jump... and they're not great advertisements for Asante this season.
