The team that traded him will say only that he’s no longer their property, and the franchise that acquired his rights for a future first-round pick is cleaning the house in anticipation of his arrival.
Still, there’s no sign of defensive lineman Richard Seymour in Oakland.
Per Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Raiders have freed up $1.5 million in cap space in order to absorb Seymour’s base salary of nearly $3.7 million — if/when/if Seymour arrives.
Specifically, the contracts of offensive lineman Cornell Green and Paul McQuistan have been restructured.
Meanwhile, Pats coach Bill Belichick, director of player personnel Nick Caserio, and defensive coordinator Dean Pees were mum on the matter, per Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald.
“We don’t have the rights to Richard, so I can’t really speak to that,” Belichick said. “There isn’t really anything I can say about him or his situation. I’ll pass on that.”
Raiders coach Tom Cable said Monday that Seymour’s absence relates to the resolution of financial issues between Seymour and the Patriots. Patriots spokesman Stacey James has said that he is aware of no such issues.
So this thing is officially bizarre.
And we love every minute of it.
What a feeling..
Going from the Pats to the Raiders. Can you imagine going to that clusterphuck of a team and owner?
Why in the eff would you give up a 1st round draft pick for a d-lineman who has been in the league for like 9 freaking years already?
So basically nothing has changed since the last report. This is the same news that has been reported since yesterday. Wow your reporting is now officially bizarre.
Will trading away a team captain create a schism on the Patriots?
Will aquiring a moody veteran who clearly doens’t want to be there create a schism on the Raiders?
When the truth comes out it won’t be that strange.
Only the Raiders…
Whatever the situation is, I’m sure you’re blowing it completely out of proportion Florio.
The Patriots have never lied or cheated before so we should definitely believe what they’re saying…
where you been florio….the clearing space cause they are working on a new 3yr contract…is that really strange…its already been reported
He’s probably on his hands and knees begging the Patriots for another chance to stay on the team. Super Bowl contender vs Under .500 contender.
Everyone wants to act like the Raiders have done something wrong here. For trying to make their team better. This is crazy. They gave up a 1st rounder 2 years from now for an elite DL who is only making 3.5 mil this season.
Compare that deal to what the Cowboys gave for Roy williams or what the Vikes gave for #69. The raiders deal is much better.
Look at what the Skins gave Haynsworth. 100 mil for a guy the same age as Seymour, but who has been more injured and has accomplished much less than Seymour.
But somehow the media wants to spin it like the Raiders made a bad move. Come on. Get your heads out of your butts for a change. The Raiders made a great move. It benefits both teams for different reasons.
What the media, bloggers and columnists need to be reporting and gossiping about is how lame and unprofessional it is that a player is trying to stop a trade from going through because he doesnt like the team. Trades are part of the game. Instead, most writers are flaming the Raiders for just trying to make their team better and turn around the losing steak. Its like Bizzarro World around here.
It’d be nice to see writers and columnists do the right thing or once instead of just piling onto the easy target.
Maybe he’s thinking of joining the UFL. Might be a better place to go than the Raiders…
Sounds like extra-contractual compensation may be involved.
Just show up Dick Seymour.
“# Rex Grossman says: September 8, 2009 4:51 PM
Why in the eff would you give up a 1st round draft pick for a d-lineman who has been in the league for like 9 freaking years already?”
When you are Crazy Al you just don’t give a shit.
Patriot’s defensive coordinator is named Dean Pees? Dean Pees. Dean Pees on what?
Yeah, I’m immature, but I’ll bet that poor bastard had a nasty childhood with that last name.
Every reporter didn’t believe Cable.
At least one reporter went out to find out if what he said about Seymour and his “issues” with the Pats was true or not:
http://news.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view/20090908richard_seymour_not_quite_a_raider_yet_hangups_hold_up_deal/srvc=home&position=also
Citizen S highlights the disease of the season. Schizmitis. It is far worse than mere swine flu, or even polio. It infects plenty of teams, and it’s impact is pervasive. It is dangerous, believe you me. Spread by schizmella bacteria. One of the first symptoms of the dreaded disease is that NFL players infected immediately dismiss the notion they know what “schism” even means. It’s like aliens, infecting the mind. The spread and control of schizmitis may determine the championship.
Seymour has probably gone crazy upon hearing he was traded to the Raiders. I’m guessing he’s hiding out in the trainers room, screaming at the top of his lungs and demanding cash to pay for the psychotherapy he’ll be needing.
Al Davis is dead and his insane clone has taken over! God help anyone connected with the sinking ship that is the Raiduhs…….
only one of two scenario;s.
First Seymour does not want play for the Raiders, and the PAT’s are incorrect, the deal is contigent on Seymour passing a physical. Unless he takes a passess a physical in Oakland the deal is null and void.
Or it’s more in line what I would think, and that is the Raiders are working on a 4 to 5 yr deal, that equates to his salary this year, and what it would cost the Raiders if they franchised him the following two years, with years 4 and 5 being those years that are esclated and no player ever really see’s them. So the hold up is the signing bonus.
Rex Grossman – Why? Because its the Raiders.
I’m sure Seymour will report. If he doesn’t, he will still be under contract after this year, and he won’t be able to cash in after this off-season, a non-salary cap year.
I would bet that Seymour is now mad at the Pats for treating him like garbage after he won three Super Bowls for that formerly moribund franchise. He should be. That Pats treated him with no class whatsoever.
Apparently he has a young child in school in Foxboro. Now he has to move his family all the way across country (!) right at the beginning of the school year while learning a new defense. That sucks.
Maybe Seymour leaves his wife and child behind in Foxboro for the year. There is a good chance he will sign somewhere else after this season, barring the franchise tag. Why move them twice in two years? Still, separating himself from his family would suck, too.
If I was Seymour, I would be mad, and then I would show up and do my job anyway. I’d still be mad.
Bellicheck is not a classy guy, folks.
It’s funny.. because profootballcentral was reporting that not only does he want to be a Raider, but they are working on a 3 year deal to keep him there and the only thing holding it up is how much will be bonus money and how much will be spread out over the 3 years…. gee…. the vitriol for the Raiders on this site is ridiculous
Remember Clueless Al Davis is old and frail. After getting bent over his walker by B.B. Davis justs needs a little time to recover. Then Seymour will get his chance to do the same. All those $$$$ are gonna make Davis rear resemble the grand canyon.
Yeah, like anyone from the Pats is going to tell the Herald anything.
I Seymour problems in the future for the Raiders.
(wait for laughter)
………….(still waiting!)….
Totally agree with Vox: “Sounds like extra-contractual compensation may be involved.”
Unless he takes a passess a physical in Oakland the deal is null and void.
Many of you keep saying this. I don’t think it’s true.
Any player who wanted a de facto no-trade clause would just not show up for his physical.
I don’t believe it’s quite that easy, unless Richard is sitting out this year.
It’s really not that hard.
He doesn’t want to play for the Raiders.
And without an extension, I don’t want him to.
Let it fall through.
Word on the street is that Richard is inconsolable after finding out that Brett Favre has polio/swine flu/cracked ribs.
If the Eagles , Giants , Jets , Packers , Colts , or Steelers made the trade that the Raiders made the media and everyone else would be sayin ” What a great trdae it just shows how good that front office is to get a Pro Bowl player and great team leader like Seymour from the Pats and it really shows their commitment to winning” But the Raiders made the trade so it has to be the worst trade ever. It scares me the day that someone will actually report or comment on something and they actually have a clue what they are talking about.
In related news, the Raiders introduced their 2009 team motto … “Just Gin Baby”
swervinmervin
Good post well said. I’m a Pats fan. Most of the Pats fans are telling Sey “don’t let the door hit you in the ass.” But Big Sey ‘s #’s from last season (w/o the freakish 10 batted balls.) are the exact same #’s as his Pro Bowl years. He is still a monster on the line and the OC’s still have to game plan around him. I think he will be a huge loss for my team. Our front 7 just lost a large piece to our run defense, not to mention he lead the team with 8 sacks (which our pass rush has been our downfall for the past two seasons.)
You have to wonder whether or not Seymour could injure himself on purpose. Nothing too serious, just enough to make him show up and fail his physical. Then New England would have to take him back or cut him.
Seymour is just being a bitch about getting traded to the Raiders. It has nothing to do with money or his family, he’s just upset he has to play for a worse team.
Just like when Gordon Bombay brought that badass kid to the Mighty Ducks. Did that kid want to go from the Hawks to the Ducks? No, but he did because that’s the rules. He could have quit playing hockey, just like Seymour could retire from the NFL, but he decided to suck it up and play for the Ducks. And we all know how that worked out. CHAMPIONSHIP!
Will trading away a team captain create a schism on the Patriots?
No. The veteran Pats players are used to Belichick and the newbies are…newbies.
Will aquiring a moody veteran who clearly doens’t want to be there create a schism on the Raiders?
The moody veteran is pretty minor compared to the HC breaking the jaw of an Assistant.
leatherneck says: I’m sure Seymour will report. If he doesn’t, he will still be under contract after this year, and he won’t be able to cash in after this off-season, a non-salary cap year. I would bet that Seymour is now mad at the Pats for treating him like garbage after he won three Super Bowls for that formerly moribund franchise. He should be. That Pats treated him with no class whatsoever. Apparently he has a young child in school in Foxboro. Now he has to move his family all the way across country (!) right at the beginning of the school year while learning a new defense. That sucks. Maybe Seymour leaves his wife and child behind in Foxboro for the year. There is a good chance he will sign somewhere else after this season, barring the franchise tag. Why move them twice in two years? Still, separating himself from his family would suck, too. If I was Seymour, I would be mad, and then I would show up and do my job anyway. I’d still be mad. Bellicheck is not a classy guy, folks.
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@leatherneck: I don’t like to say this much, but in your case I have to – you sir are a moron.
You have absolutely no clue at all how the real world functions, you just saw a chance to throw a jab at Belichick and you took it.
Good for you. Maybe trying to cut down someone much better than you will help you get through another day of your sad life.
So when you go around telling all your buds how you stuck it to all the Patriots fans out there just remember: Coach Belichick is still better than you, and he always will be.
What everyone seems to be forgetting here is how big of a bitch Seymour is being. If I was being paid 3.5 mil for 6 months of work (if you call playing the sport you are supposed to love work), I would play wherever I was freaking told to. Seriously, what a crybaby D bag. You can’t sack up for one year and play for a bad team? If you’re so great, go there and be a player, help turn the team around, and hit your mega payday in March with whatever team you want. You’re a grown ass man, time to start acting like one and not crying like a school girl because you don’t get your way.
shake – if any of those teams made this deal, it would be looked at as adding a final piece to a championship team. In this case, the Raiders are a big disaster, and will be lucky to have a winning record, with or without Seymour. When you are a bad team, usually draft picks are more valuable than someone who very well could be retired before the team is back to competitive.
Alpheratz, this is exactly the case and not at all the equivalent of a no-trade clause. Seymour is risking not getting paid; if he had a no trade clause, he’d still get paid or the team would be forced to lock him out, etc…
So, yes, of course, Cable is lying, but also, so is Belichick. Belichick is fully aware that NE still has Seymour’s rights — he’s just hoping to will his own reality because after dealing with Seymour and caving twice, he knows that Seymour will not only sit out and not go to Oakland, he will now sit out on NE. NE will be stuck with Seymour’s contract and without the All-Pro, and they’ll have to deal with the bad blood in the locker room.
All because Belichick couldn’t resist the most attractive deal to the team (can’t fault him for that) but also the one that would do the most damage to Seymour (scummy). I’m sure the delay is in Seymour reviewing exactly what tactics he can pursue with his agent and lawyers to not only stay out of Oakland but to screw NE. Belichick did “biz’ness” with the wrong guy on this one, and everyone is going to get hurt by it.
shake&bake, every team you mention is at least 5 years closer to a Super Bowl than the Raiders. This is absolutely a good trade for a team that is one or two players from contending, particularly if they need a dominant D-lineman. It’s not a good trade for a team that everyone foresees drafting in the top 5 spots for the next decade.
he must be negotiating a new contract already.
otherwise, he can report. or skip a year and see this all happen again.
kid in school? that doesnt factor into it for any of these guys, seymour included.
He acts like he is the first guy to ever get traded and have to leave his family or move them. Jesus Christ are you kidding me! What a little freakin crybaby ! Does he cry when he has to move his fat ass from the couch to the bed every night. Freakin guys have it made and they act like a bunch of 6 year olds! Get your ass to Oakland play like a man hold up your end like a man and see what happens after this season. Dam it’s not that hard!
So team trades 9 year vet and as player is no longer a member of the organization and not playing for the upcoming opponent, they have no comment. Yes, truly bizarre.
Player, who’s been with the same team 9 years get a surprise trade days before the opener and needs to tie things up. Even more bizarre behavior.
The only thing that gives it a soap opera twist is the two teams involved are one of the best organization’s and the other, probably the worst organization. Nothing to see here folks, move along.
What everyone seems to miss is that this guy plays a game for living. Who out there wouldn’t want to earn almost 4 million dollars for playing football. Just show up and earn your money!
DoomsDayD75… Best post ever.
Has it really devolved this badly? Are we really at the point where the Raiders can’t even execute a lopsided trade with New England anymore?
C’mon Al. Your former, incompetent, snotty coach just blew away St. Coletta’s Day School last Saturday. Don’t let him show you up like this. Geeez.
How bad is that joke of a front office in Oakland a first rounder for Seymour maybe a few years ago but with how undead Al drafts maybe this is a good move?
To Citizen Strange….
Richard Seymour hasn’t been a team captain since 2006.
The team votes on this every year and for the third year in a row Richard wasn’t voted a captain.
Could have something to do with him being expendable.
And I wonder if the comments last week from Ellis Hobbs about certain big ticket guys dogging it had anything to do with Richard and Bill trading him and Richard not being voted capatain for the last three years.
Majikman–”You’re a grown ass man, time to start acting like one and not crying like a school girl because you don’t get your way”.
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Favre, Cutler, Marshall, Manny (baseball, I know)–That’s just the ones I can think of in the last year or 2
See the trend–Better to be a baby rather than to man up–PRO atheletes are starting to grate on my nerves almost as bad as politicians
Vickspuppies….. Ok let me rephrase that if anyone else in the league made this trade it would be great but since it was Oakladn it’s horrible. There i hope i made myself clear. And your screen name is a joke! And yea youre right drafting a player in the first round is always a great move cause they always work out. Why would you make a move to shore up your deffense and hopefully make the team a little better NOW. If they didnt make any moves you would be saying they arent trying to win. They just can’t win sometimes.
Alpheratz, I should add that, of course, the recipient team could waive the physical… but when you are facing a holdout and the transfer of the rights related to that hold out… well, not even Oakland is stupid enough to do that.
However, I think you are misinterpreting the power of the physical as a strong tool for the player, it is not. All it does is shift a holdout from one team to another. It is in place to allow a contract signee an opportunity to inspect and evaluate the goods they are receiving. That is all.
For all the folks saying suck it up, Seymour; you get paid lots of money to play a game, Seymour; you’re being a bitch, Dick. Did you ever realize that Seymour is aware of these things and he has already made enough money to secure his future and doesn’t care enough about money to miss 4 million this year, but he has enough self-respect that he wants to be treated like one of the top D-lineman in the league and as someone who is worthy of respect and gratitude from the team he helped to 3 SB Championships? Because that’s the impression he’s always given me and has pretty well demonstrated in his past 2 holdouts.
It’s just as easy to flip it and say: suck it up Belichick and treat Seymour with some respect! Stop being a bitch, Belichick! Etc…
i think the people making a lot of these comments like “seymour is a crybaby,” “suck it up,” etc. fail to realize that seymour has not said one word on the situation. only words being said are by belicheck, cable and rodney harrison. i’m a raiders fan, and i want to guy to report and all, but give the story a chance to develop before jumping the guys shit. almost everything dealing with this story is pure speculation, so the guy, the teams and the coaches are not all at fault just because its taken two days for a guy to switch teams and coasts 8 days before the season starts.
Everybody having fun hatin’ on the Raiders? Get a life. You all saying crap that has been said a million times before. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Swervinmervin nailed it. You idiots who think Seymour is just bitching because he’s going to the Raiders, are about as dumb as they come. This all about the money, which all pro athletes care about these days, so get over tyourselves and your tired ass comments.
The same goes for Florio. If you don’t have anything new to report, then don’t bother repeating yourself just so you can look like an unprofessional douchebag over and over again by finding new way to show your hatred for the Raiders.
Hey Booger eaters, Seymour is working out a long-term deal relax, lol. Don’t all u fans wish your team was talked about as much?? I know you’re all wishing oakland would bring Sey in there keep him for a year then let him walk so you could drop the blow-up doll, wipe off your hands and run to the computer and shout how Al Davis is so stupid, LOL. I think Al has lost it too, but he is still a hall-of-famer and has forgotten more about football than all u espn-disciples will ever know. Name me someone else that has been a successful player, coach, and owner?? Is his team down right now, YES, but they’re coming back. LOLLLL! Can’t wait for this.
hey Raider fans, don’t give seymour A new contract you’ll be sorry, This guy has a history of holding out .in 05 held his breath until the pats paid him a million extra on the last year of his first contract, then held out on the next contract(he went home to n.carolina and said call me when you have a contract I like} He said its not personnel I just need to take care of my family………..then when he’s signed he plays hard when he feels like turning it on…
so richard how does it feel when Its (not personnel) the other way ………………
leatherneck – They handled Seymour with no class? What were they supposed to do, hold onto him because of everything that he did for them over nine years even though they felt it was better to mov eon without him right now?
If this team thought like that, it wouldn’t have three championships, four Super Bowl appearances and five AFC championship game appearances since 2001.
It’s a business and they live by that motto so they can field a great team year-in and year-out.
So do teams like the Steelers and Colts. That is why they are always at the top of the league. That is why I respect every one of those franchises.
It’s all just a simple misunderstanding. All the Pats told Seymour was that he was traded to Oakland. He’s been hanging around the A’s clubhouse for a few days waiting for the new bats he ordered to arrive.
Paul McQuistan is making the league minimum and Cornell Green is making $1.8 million, both in the final years of their contracts. Unless he has earned some escalator on top of his minimum salary, McQuistan can’t possibly make less money, and the minimum for Green would be $745k, so only $1 million could be knocked off of his deal. Where does this $1.5 million in cap space come from? It’s like the black hole of accounting.
I don’t know why everyone is so nuts about this. It’s not like the Rayduhs just shipped Randy Moss to the Pahhts for a 4th round pick.
It’s simple: holding out to be paid for his copies of the videotapes……..
how does he have a right to demand a new contract. wasn’t his current contract for one more year……..this is all about poor richard missing out on an uncapped year LARGE contract… love these guys me me me ..me …..
tj.52 – You just tried to cut me down to make yourself feel better. Look in the mirror, pal, and re-read what you wrote.
As I said, Bellicheck is not classy. He is a winner, but he is not Bill Walsh or Tom Landry. Far from it.
Raiders win the west. The Dolphins went from 1-15 in ’07 to division champs in 08. It can be done and will be.