After starting at defensive tackle for the Giants for his entire five-year NFL career, Barry Cofield signed a free-agent contract with the Redskins this offseason. Now Cofield is preparing to play against his old teammates -- and taking shots at his old front office.
Cofield said he doesn’t like the way the Giants treated some of the veteran players who left this offseason, including Shaun O’Hara, Rich Seubert, Chase Blackburn, Kevin Boss and Steve Smith.
“Some other guys I played with, sweat with and bled with, I don’t think it was right, the way things went down with them,” Cofield told Mike Garafolo of the Star-Ledger. “A guy that’s been there for 10 years like Rich gets hurt and you fire him? That’s the best way to put it.”
Cofield is also upset with the way the Giants have treated Osi Umenyiora.
“And don’t forget about Osi. I don’t think that’s right either,” Cofield said. “If you’re two years into a contract and maybe you feel like you signed a bad deal, that’s one thing. But he’s played four years into a six-year deal. That’s about the time it’s reasonable to come back and say, ‘Can we do something about this?’”
Actually, some people would argue that the time to ask to do something is when you’ve completed all of your contract, not when you’ve completed two-thirds of your contract. But Cofield’s point is that the Giants are a lot more likely to cut a player who has underperformed than reward a player who has overperformed. Cofield left the Giants to get his reward, and now he’s motivated to play against them.