Seahawks receiver Nate Burleson will be an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career next Friday. And in a Friday appearance with Dave “Softy” Mahler of KJR in Seattle (thanks Jimmy Shapiro of SportsRadioInterviews.com for sending it along), Burleson expressed a desire to stay in Seattle -- and he suggested he’ll give the Seahawks a chance to match any offer he gets on the open market.
But Burleson offered a vague limitation on that possibility, citing his experience from four years ago, when he signed with the Seahawks.
"[W]hen I was in Minnesota, they allowed Seattle to put up an offer because I was a restricted free agent and they did tender me,” Burleson said. “And by the time Minnesota matched the contract Seattle was willing to give me, I already felt like such a priority in Seattle. I already felt like they had reached out so much and it was tough for me to kind of go back as a Viking.”
Yikes.
Burleson apparently forgets that he was the back end of the seven-year, $49 million poison-pill tit-for-tat that started with the Vikings lifting guard Steve Hutchinson from Seattle. The Seahawks came up with a similar offer that the Vikings couldn’t afford to match due to guarantee triggers that would have applied if the Vikings had matched the deal, but that didn’t apply to Seattle.
Contrary to Burleson’s current version of the events, the Vikings didn’t match. They had no intention of matching. They received a third-round pick in exchange.
We realize that these details can fade with time. But if anyone should know the realities of the situation, shouldn’t Burleson?
That said, this could be Burleson’s way of letting the Seahawks know that if another team shows him enough love, he might not give the Seahawks a chance to match. If that’s the case, we prefer that he just say it in lieu of twisting history in a way that suits his present purpose.
The good news is that this skill could give him a potentially promising career in politics.