Raiders defensive end Justin Tuck says he would still be Giants defensive end Justin Tuck if the money he was being offered in Oakland and New York were even close.
But Tuck, who signed a two-year, $11 million contract with the Raiders, says the money wasn’t close. In fact, Tuck says the Giants were only offering about half as much as the Raiders offered, and considering all the years of hard work Tuck has done in a Giants uniform, he felt that offer “was pretty much disrespectful.”
Tuck told the New York Daily News he would have accepted less money from the Giants. But he wasn’t going to accept a disrespectful offer.
“They wouldn’t have had to match it,” Tuck said. “You know, at the beginning of free agency I’m going in thinking I’m not looking for a lot. I understand the Giants have a lot of holes to fill. If they were trying to sign me before free agency hit, or at least were trying to communicate with us, then I probably would’ve took somewhere around a two-year deal, $8 million, somewhere around there.”
Tuck also said that if the Giants were never going to offer him even close to what he was asking for, they should have told him that from the beginning.
“That’s the disrespect part,” Tuck said. “I don’t want people to think I’m bad-mouthing the Giants. I’m not. I understand the business and I have so much gratitude for them giving me the opportunity to have my presence felt in New York and be the man I’ve become. I’m just frustrated with how it ended. I’m upset about it. But I’ll move on and hopefully one day time will heal all wounds. Right now, I just don’t understand a lot that’s gone on and how they strung us along.”
And so after nine years with the Giants, Tuck will head to Oakland with a bitter taste in his mouth.