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Former New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan believes his former team isn’t treating his good friend and former teammates Osi Umenyiora very well when it comes to his contract.
Now of course the Giants ended up reworking Osi’s contract to give him some more money, but he’s still underpaid.
“To be honest with you, it’s flat-out robbery,’’ Strahan said yesterday at the Big Daddy Oheka Castle Celebrity Golf Tournament in Huntington, per the NY Post.
Strahan says if he was Osi he would have sat at home and not played until the Giants decided to pay him.
“If it were me, I would have sat at home and I wouldn’t have played,’’ Strahan said. “That’s just me. I’ve threatened to do that in my time and I ended up getting what I wanted. Osi’s a different mindset than me. I’m probably a little more, ‘I don’t care what people think.’
“For him it works out, he’s going to be fine, he’s going to play well. If he played well under the previous situations of being unhappy to being somewhat happy now, I’m sure he’ll do great.’’
Strahan says Osi has a good heart and that in the business of the NFL, teams don’t care.
“He just didn’t take advantage of it at the times when he should have,’’ Strahan said. “I think Osi has a good heart. He expects for people to do as what he would do, you expect people to treat you the way you expect to be treated. Sometimes in the game of business it doesn’t work that way and you have to understand it as a player sooner rather than later.’’
“There aren’t many players who can do that,’’ Strahan said. “Osi’s gotten a bad rap over this, the contract, the contract, the contract. He’s always performed well when he’s been healthy. I think he’ll play well and I think next year, contract-wise, will be a big year for him and I can get a loan from him.’’
I have certainly bashed Umenyiora over the past few years for wanting a new contract, but at the end of the day I completely understand where his mind was at and can’t blame him.
