So why hasn’t defensive lineman Richard Seymour reported for duty in Oakland?
Some think that he wants a new deal from a Raiders. A league source tells us that the root of the problem is that Seymour thought he was getting a new deal from the Patriots.
Per the source, Seymour believes that progress was being made toward an agreement that would have extended his stay with the Patriots beyond 2009. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the Patriots shipped him to Oakland.
The source explains that there’s a chance that agent Eugene Parker led Seymour to believe that the talks toward a new deal had progressed farther than they actually had. Either way, the fact that Seymour went from thinking he was going to sign a retirement deal with the Patriots to learning that he’d been sent to the Raiders has contributed in large part to the confusion and frustration that has kept him from reporting to work at his new place of employment.
And it remains to be seen whether he ever will.