Last week, I crossed paths on several occasions with John Clayton of ESPN. We’d never met before, and I found him to be polite and friendly and collegial and free of any pony tail.
So let’s see what I can now do to screw things up.
Danny O’Neil of the Seattle Times has mentioned on Twitter that Clayton, appearing with O’Neil on ESPN 710 in Seattle, said that Clayton expects the Eagles to release quarterback Mike Vick on Wednesday, a day before $3 million of Vick’s $15.5 million base salary becomes fully guaranteed.
It was surprising, since it goes against multiple reports that the Eagles aren’t concerned about the $3 million guarantee. If he’s ultimately cut the Eagles will get a dollar-for-dollar credit based on what Vick earns elsewhere.
And I’ve reconfirmed via a source with direct knowledge of the situation that Vick won’t be released before the Thursday deadline, and that the Eagles aren’t concerned about the vesting of the $3 million guarantee.
So we’ll wait for Wednesday and Thursday to come and go without Vick being released, and I’ll hope that the next time I run into John Clayton he’ll be polite and friendly and collegial.
The pony tail is optional.