Jarrad Page's camp wants to make it very, very clear: He wants out of Kansas City.
Two months ago, Page's reps publicly requested a trade. They followed that up with a release that was sent to Nick Wright of 610 Sports this afternoon.
Here are the highlights of the email Page's reps sent to Wright this afternoon. It's good. You're going to want to read it.
Page's agent is going on 610 Sports with Wright this afternoon so we'll be listening to what he has to say.
Jarrad Page requested to be traded away from Kansas City after the third Pre-Season game last year (vs. Seattle Seahawks). We requested a trade again this year on 6/17/2010 for the second time.
I believe Jarrad Page had some sort of injury for that Seattle game. He was asked why he didn't dress for the game and he said to ask Todd Haley, which would imply there was some sort of friction there. Haley said when asked about it, "He’s out on the field today, so that’s a good thing. If you’re on the field you have a chance to make this team and help us win."
The feeling after that press conference on Aug. 31 was that Haley thought Page should have played through the injury. Obviously Page feels differently. His agent told Wright that there was a "culture of intimidation" within the Chiefs to get players to play through injuries.
After that game, Page was demoted to the second team behind Jon McGraw. At the time, I called Page's absence from the Seattle game and his demotion to the second team "mysterious" because we didn't know what was going on. We found out later from Nick Wright of 610 Sports that Page had repeatedly asked Haley to trade him during training camp last year.
Beginning in the Pre-Season and continuing all year, Coach Todd Haley mishandled Jarrad last season causing him to end up on IR. (Jarrad never missed a game in his NFL career prior to last season).
I'm not sure I completely understand this one but I think it's a reference to my explanation above that the perception was that Haley wanted Page to play through an injury. Again, to be fair to the Chiefs, Haley has never explicitly said he thought Page should have played through an injury but that's been the perception.
There has been interest for Jarrad and the Chiefs are blocking legitimate trades. There's been plenty of time to get a trade done and at this point, in our opinion, it's clear that the Chiefs are being Vindictive.
Indeed there's been interest. We reported in the first week of July that the Lions had contacted the Chiefs regarding Page. The Chiefs weren't interested at the time.
My take: The Chiefs don't want to give off the perception that you can complain and go public with trade requests and get your way. It's a slippery slope (like LJ last year) between making a statement to the rest of the team and doing what's best for the football team (as far as getting a draft pick for Page).
Front Page Sports Management called Chiefs Front Office on Monday, 7/26/2010 before Training Camp began, to discuss "trade request". Call was returned by member of Front Office who has been involved in Jarrad's negotiations who claimed, "he didn't know anything about a trade request and had never heard of it".
Something's not right with that last statement. Page made public his trade request at the end of June so if it is accurate that a member of the Chiefs front office said that then they're either not telling the truth of out of the loop. The Chiefs haven't commented on this situation so we're not sure what to think about that but something doesn't seem right about it.
Two subsequent calls made later on the same day to the GM have not been returned to this date. Jarrad no longer has a residence in Missouri or Kansas and has moved to California.
Wright asked Haley this afternoon about the comments from Page's camp:
"Nick, I will, as long as I'm the head coach, I will talk about the guys that are out there on that field practicing. The majority, 76 of them today, that are counting toward the 80-man roster. And, I think there's some good stuff to talk about."