Cary Williams had a tremendous postseason, pulling in two interceptions and making 27 tackles en route to winning a Super Bowl with the Ravens while. Even though the cornerback parted ways with Baltimore to come to Philadelphia, the party atmosphere must have really caught his attention because since winning that Super Bowl, Williams hasn’t really snapped back to football reality yet.
He already wasn’t the most loved signing in Eagles history because of the shoving match that he and DeSean Jackson got into to begin the 2012 season. Now, he’s beginning to piss off the fans with how little he cares about the “voluntary” organized team activities. He missed the beginning of them because he had a wedding and honeymoon scheduled, and Chip Kelly said he was fine with that and all of that was understood from the beginning.
Then, Williams missed time because he had to check out his house being built. He also missed time because he had to have dental work. Finally, on Friday, Williams missed the entire day’s practice because of his daughter’s dance recital.
What’s even worse is that he doesn’t give a damn that the fans are pissed off and sees nothing wrong with what he’s doing.
“Just because it was OTAs doesn’t mean I need to derail my plans for a situation like that,” Williams told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Not being disrespectful. Everybody has their own personal life and things to take care of. And in my life, I have something to take care of, and I felt that was important. . . . As far as I’m concerned, I did what was more important to me at the time, and family is the most important thing.”
No one is going to tell the man that his family isn’t the most important thing. But didn’t he have an agent that could have told him when OTAs were scheduled before he scheduled his wedding and honeymoon? Does construction on his house stop in the early afternoon every single day? Does every dentist in the area strictly follow a 9 to 5 schedule? When did dance recitals become an all-day experience? At that rate, his daughter is probably better conditioned to be on the field than he is. Because he missed so much time, he was demoted from first-team defense to second-team defense for Curtis Marsh.
They might be voluntary in name, but they really aren’t when you’re a big-name player who is expected to come into a new team that has a completely new philosophy under a new coaching staff and do big things. Williams already had one strike when he came to town after his confrontation with Jackson and got another one in the middle of his opening press conference when he said he likened himself to Nnamdi Asomugha. Asomugha got a lot of crap for eating his lunch in his car during practice instead of with the team, but at least he was there.
Here’s to hoping strike three doesn’t come anytime soon.