Bongo59
Waterboy
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If he hadn't seen the guy in the Eddie George jersey, David Givens might still be a New England Patriot. Such are the idiosyncrasies of free agency once your team decides to let you stray off the reservation.
Thirty-six hours into what would become an 84-hour whirlwind of travel, negotiations, meetings, physicals, family phone calls, and self-examination for both Givens and his Boston-based agent, Brad Blank, the Patriots' highly regarded wide receiver stood in an office at Reliant Stadium, the home of the Houston Texans, talking on the phone with Blank about an option neither had considered when free agency finally began at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. The Tennessee Titans were trying to talk their way into the equation, one that to this point included the Patriots, the Texans, and the Miami Dolphins. Those had been Givens's teams of choice from the start, but suddenly, unexpectedly, he had a desperate new suitor.
Blank was trying to persuade Givens to visit Nashville the next day while Givens was searching for reasons to give a hometown discount to his real hometown of Houston, where he'd grown up rooting for what ironically was now the Titans. As he pondered these options, The Jersey suddenly appeared. It was like an apparition, a voice in the wilderness calling to him from a Texas parking lot. Who can know about such things as these?
''The general manager [Charley Casserly] and the coaches had left me to use the phone in their offices and Brad started talking about how the Titans were interested," Givens recalled Tuesday night, only hours after signing a five-year, $24 million contract in Tennessee. ''I'm in the Texans' facility and he's telling me about the Titans and all of a sudden there's a guy outside the stadium at some sort of carnival and he's wearing Eddie George's jersey. There were about 2,000 people there and I didn't see any other jersey but that one on anybody. It was really strange. Very strange."
As Givens looked at the jersey of the Titans' former All-Pro running back, Blank told him how Tennessee general manager Floyd Reese had just made an offer well in excess of what either the Texans or the Patriots were putting on the table. While he explained the options already in play and others still unexplored with teams such as San Diego, San Francisco, and Carolina, Givens talked about omens.
''He was giving me all the reasons to sign in Houston," Blank recalled. ''He was talking about comfort level and playing in front of his family and the convenience of knowing his way around. He had good reasons for the way he was thinking and I had 23 million reasons for him to take a look at Nashville. At the time Houston was offering 17.5 [million dollars] so I said if they go north of $20 million we can fight about going but if they stay south of 20, it's a no-brainer.
'As I was talking he said, 'Brad, Brad. Somebody just walked by wearing an Eddie George jersey. Do you think it's a sign?' I told him I didn't know but we should take a look at Nashville. David agreed if [Houston] stayed south of 20 he'd get on the plane."
Less than 36 hours later, Givens was the Titans' No. 1 receiver, having rejected the lesser offers to go and play for his original hometown team, the team that was once the Houston Oilers but now played in a town he'd never visited and knew little about. That's how it goes in free agency sometimes once the winds begin to blow and the money begins to flow. It's a time where anything can happen. Anything but getting a good night's sleep.
If he hadn't seen the guy in the Eddie George jersey, David Givens might still be a New England Patriot. Such are the idiosyncrasies of free agency once your team decides to let you stray off the reservation.
Thirty-six hours into what would become an 84-hour whirlwind of travel, negotiations, meetings, physicals, family phone calls, and self-examination for both Givens and his Boston-based agent, Brad Blank, the Patriots' highly regarded wide receiver stood in an office at Reliant Stadium, the home of the Houston Texans, talking on the phone with Blank about an option neither had considered when free agency finally began at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. The Tennessee Titans were trying to talk their way into the equation, one that to this point included the Patriots, the Texans, and the Miami Dolphins. Those had been Givens's teams of choice from the start, but suddenly, unexpectedly, he had a desperate new suitor.
Blank was trying to persuade Givens to visit Nashville the next day while Givens was searching for reasons to give a hometown discount to his real hometown of Houston, where he'd grown up rooting for what ironically was now the Titans. As he pondered these options, The Jersey suddenly appeared. It was like an apparition, a voice in the wilderness calling to him from a Texas parking lot. Who can know about such things as these?
''The general manager [Charley Casserly] and the coaches had left me to use the phone in their offices and Brad started talking about how the Titans were interested," Givens recalled Tuesday night, only hours after signing a five-year, $24 million contract in Tennessee. ''I'm in the Texans' facility and he's telling me about the Titans and all of a sudden there's a guy outside the stadium at some sort of carnival and he's wearing Eddie George's jersey. There were about 2,000 people there and I didn't see any other jersey but that one on anybody. It was really strange. Very strange."
As Givens looked at the jersey of the Titans' former All-Pro running back, Blank told him how Tennessee general manager Floyd Reese had just made an offer well in excess of what either the Texans or the Patriots were putting on the table. While he explained the options already in play and others still unexplored with teams such as San Diego, San Francisco, and Carolina, Givens talked about omens.
''He was giving me all the reasons to sign in Houston," Blank recalled. ''He was talking about comfort level and playing in front of his family and the convenience of knowing his way around. He had good reasons for the way he was thinking and I had 23 million reasons for him to take a look at Nashville. At the time Houston was offering 17.5 [million dollars] so I said if they go north of $20 million we can fight about going but if they stay south of 20, it's a no-brainer.
'As I was talking he said, 'Brad, Brad. Somebody just walked by wearing an Eddie George jersey. Do you think it's a sign?' I told him I didn't know but we should take a look at Nashville. David agreed if [Houston] stayed south of 20 he'd get on the plane."
Less than 36 hours later, Givens was the Titans' No. 1 receiver, having rejected the lesser offers to go and play for his original hometown team, the team that was once the Houston Oilers but now played in a town he'd never visited and knew little about. That's how it goes in free agency sometimes once the winds begin to blow and the money begins to flow. It's a time where anything can happen. Anything but getting a good night's sleep.
