Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew said when he ended his holdout today that he doesn’t regret anything -- even though he doesn’t have a new contract.
“I have no regrets. If I was able to be born again, I’d do it the same way,” Jones-Drew told reporters today. “It ran its course. I’m ready to play football.”
Ultimately, Jones-Drew ended up getting a vacation in the month of August, when other NFL players are doing their hardest work of the year, but he didn’t get any more money than the $4.45 million he was always due on his current contract. And considering that Jones-Drew called his holdout “a dispute over money,” the fact that he didn’t get any extra money would suggest that he didn’t accomplish what he wanted to accomplish.
But Jones-Drew says he’s glad he handled his holdout the way he did.
“I did something I felt was right, and I’m always going to feel right,” Jones-Drew said. “I’m not going to feel wrong for doing what I did. That’s why I can come back and not have a negative attitude about it. Not one person here can say what I did was wrong.”
Actually, some people would say it’s wrong for Jones-Drew not to show up for work during training camp and the preseason when he had a contract. But Jones-Drew thinks he handled his holdout exactly the right way.