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Steve Weatherford is a very nice guy. He really is. And you have to give him credit for his honesty. One other thing – he wasn’t taken out of context.
As most of you know by now, Weatherford, the former Jets’ punter, who now plays for the Football Giants, caused a stir with some comments he made about Mark Sanchez on an NFL.com podcast.
Here is what he said –
“I like Mark — I think he’s a very talented quarterback — but from my standpoint, I haven’t seen a lot of maturation. When you’re a quarterback and you come in, and you’re expected to be the face of the franchise, and you’re expected to lead the team. That’s a lot to take on as a rookie. But as the years go on, I think you’re expected to mature, skill-wise, and also mature as a leader, and to be honest with you, as much as I like the guy, I just haven’t seen that.”
Then when his comments went viral in cyberspace, he played the “my quotes were misinterpreted,” card.
He went after ESPN’s Rich Cimini, who wrote a blog about the comments. Here is a twitter exchange between the two –
Weatherford5I expected a little more out of @RichCimini but the article was totally one sided. I have alot of respect for Mark Sanchez5/18/12 4:33 PM |
RichCimini@Weatherford5 Sorry you feel that way, Steve, but all I did basically was run the quotes.5/18/12 4:55 PM– |
Cimini has a legitimate point. He did basically just run the quote. He did lead into the quote making fun of Weatherford –
“Mark Sanchez has received a lot of criticism this offseason, the latest coming from an unlikely source — the punter.
“Wait, make that the ex-punter.
“New York Giant Steve Weatherford, whose 15 minutes of fame have lasted five months, questioned Sanchez’s maturity this week during an NFL.com podcast. “
But that is what Cimini does. He likes to zing people, but clearly didn’t take Weatherford’s quote out of context, nor did he misinterpret it. The quote is clear as day.
On the heels of Weatherford’s quote about Sanchez, he has tried to make amends with the quarterback.
“Mark Sanchez will make people forget about (Tim) Tebow, but the competition will sharpen him,” Weatherford tweeted. “He has what is takes to be great.”
“I think @Mark Sanchez knows the truth,” he also tweeted. “I would never “RIP” a former teammate. Marks a great competitor and close friend This is outta control.”
While Cimini didn’t take Weatherford out of context,  perhaps a case could be made that the headline on ESPN New York was out of context – “Steve Weatherford rips Mark Sanchez.”
“I’d hardly consider Weatherford ‘ripping’ Sanchez with these comments, but that was the headline,” wrote AFC East blogger Nick St. Denis (AFC East Daily).
I agree. Weatherford was attempting to rip Sanchez. He was giving an honest assessment. There was no malicious intent.
The bottom line is this – Weatherford actually made a good point with his quote on Sanchez. There is a lot of truth to what he said.
But then when it took off in the blogesphere, he started to feel guilty, and attempted to back away from it.
However, there were no context issues here, aside from maybe a few headlines.
But nobody mishandled his quote.
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