As you know by now, the reps for Jarrad Page released a statement again requesting a trade from the Chiefs but this time with a little more punch.
His agent (and brother), John Page, appeared on Nick Wright's show on 610 Sports Friday afternoon to give a little more background to their side of the story.
John Page says this whole mess started last year the week of the Seattle Seahawks preseason game (Aug. 27).
"That was after the 3rd preseason game last year, the Seattle Seahawks," John Page began. "He was injured and wasn't able to play. Before the game, the coach basically approached the player in an intimidating manner, in language not fit for a sailor, and tried to humiliate the player in front of others to force him to play.
"He was in no condition to be playing. The player didn't return any argument and didn't say anything to the coach and just left the room when the coach asked him to because he wasn't able to play in that game. He actually put on his pads and tried to go out but wasn't able to do it.
"That experience was so disheartening, was so offensive and so outlandish, that he said this is not the place for me anymore."
I don't know if this is the case -- we don't have the Chiefs side of the story -- but intimidating someone into playing is flat-out wrong. Again, I'm not saying the Chiefs did because we only have one side of the story so it's not fair to assume that they did. NFL coaches are on a slippery slope when it comes to injuries. I interviewed NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith several months ago and he told me, "The health, safety and welfare of our players is non-negotiable," so we know how the players feel about injuries.
John Page also took issue with Todd Haley telling the media that week in August 2009 that Page was a healthy scratch.
"That was not true," he said. "The player was injured, known to be injured. Once again, he was not fit to play in a game. It was rather odd for the player to find out after the game that the media had been told he was scratched for other reasons, that he was a healthy scratch and that he was able to play, because he was not healthy enough to play. All you had to do was ask the player and there was no question all week that he was not healthy enough to play in that game."
For the record, Jarrad Page was asked why he didn't dress for the Seattle game and he said that Haley would have to answer that.
"Like I said," John Page continued, "it wasn't just one incident. It was something that began in the preseason and continued all year culminating in the player ending the season on IR. He was put out there to practice at times when he should have been resting. The proof is in the pudding when the guy ends up on IR it shows that he was pushed past his limits. Brandon Flowers, rightfully so, got a lot of credit last year for playing with an injured shoulder -- I think it was a torn labrum. Jarrad is a player who's shown he's a player who can play through injury. He also had two years ago had that same injury and played that entire season with that injury.
"He's shown he's able to play through things. It's not a matter of his toughness or him being a football player and being able to go out and push himself. But when a player knows when he's at his limit, it's not about pushing yourself past that limit and injuring yourself to the point you end up on IR, you want to take care of it correctly and handle it that way so that you can get the most out of your guy."
Wright asked John Page if they tried to smooth things over in the offseason. Remember, in late April, Jarrad Page wrote on his Twitter page that he was excited to play with Brandon Flowers, Brandon Carr, Eric Berry and others in the Chiefs secondary so, at one point this offseason, there was clearly a thought that something could be worked out.
"What you want to do is try to give an opportunity for things to be smoothed out if they can be so that's what we did. We gave it time to talk and we tried to talk things out to come to an agreement and an understanding but we weren't able to do that."
The next question, after all of this, is whether the Chiefs will trade Jarrad Page, as his reps have (publicly) requested. John Page wants to know why the Chiefs aren't trading him.
"That's not clear," he said. "I think they should be asked that. They should be asked to give a full explanation because at this point we attempted to work it out. We weren't able to do that. We notified them with more than enough time [before training camp] to make that happen. For them to drag it out this far, I don't really see a good explanation for it at this point. That's basically where it stands. Why continue to drag it out when the situation is known from last year? "
I suspect we won't be hearing from the Chiefs regarding the Page situation.