[Note by JasonB, 08/04/11 8:38 PM EDT ] The Eagles have confirmed that Ricky Sapp has indeed been placed on the "Reserve/Left Squad List."
Cody of Bleed-Green.com spoke with Eagles DE Ricky Sapp this afternoon amid reports that the second year man had quit the team. Sapp denies doing so and claims that frustration with a knee injury that he's battled since his senior year of college led to him "not practicing."
"I would never in my life just quit." He said "I’ve just been dealing with this knee for a long time and I bust my behind to get it back right and it just gives me more problems."
While Sapp says that he was not practicing, reporters noted that he was not at Lehigh. Injured players are usually off to the side working on conditioning. Geoff Mosher of the News Journal reported from Eagles camp "Source tells me Sapp left the team days ago on his own volition and was placed on Reserved/Left Squad list. Sapp did same thing last year."
Now, as far as I know teams don't publish their "Reserved/Left Squad" list, so I guess we can't check whether he is on the list for sure. But if he is, it would indicate that however Sapp wants to characterize his absence, he has left the team without their permission. Further, if was an excused injury absence, it would be news to Sapp's teammates. Mosher asked an unnamed defensive lineman if he thought Sapp would be back and his response was "if he ain't come back by now ...."
This is a very curious situation to be sure. Hopefully we'll hear something from the Eagles eventually. Check out the article and see what Sapp had to say.