Ravens safety Ed Reed has been sending plenty of messages to the team this summer, as he apparently tries to get a new contract without coming out and expressly saying, “I want a new contract.” And while Reed’s words and actions have created the impression he may not play in 2012 (the fact that he recently worked out on his own at the team’s facility is hardly dispositive), coach John Harbaugh believes that Reed will show up for work.
“I think he’s trying to make a nuance for you,” Harbaugh recently told 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “I am going to defend Ed because I am going to stand by him. He’s one of my players. I personally like him. I respect him. I think he is a good person with a good heart and that’s what you do as a coach. You stand by your guys and you may not always agree with what they say or how they say it or what they do. Most of the time I do agree with what Ed says, but not all the time and he knows that and he’s a good person. He’s trying to make a nuance point there. It’s a tough point to make a little bit and it’s hard to understand sometimes, but I’ve said all along I believe he’s going to play this year and be here and it looks like that is the case.”
The “nuance point” seems to be that he knows the team needs him more than ever, given the torn Achilles tendon suffered by linebacker Terrell Suggs. And so with a contract that pays $7.2 million in 2012, the final year of Reed’s current deal, he apparently wants more, and he’s hoping that the team will decide on their own that the time has come to take care of him financially.
If they don’t, he possibly won’t show up for part or all training camp, regardless of whether he eventually plays.