The statements sting, no matter how many ways Ty Law says them. You look at the words glaring from the page -- "I no longer want to be a New England Patriot" -- and wonder if Law somehow misspoke.
Then he says it four or five more times. He already holds the Patriots' record with seven interceptions returned for touchdowns. The best cornerback in the NFL just set a record for asking out of town in every way possible.
He said he wants a divorce and he's wanted one for a while.
He said he asked to be put on the 2002 expansion list, presumably minutes after the red-white-and-blue confetti fell on the heads of the Super Bowl XXXVI champions.
He said he's willing to write the Patriots a check for his freedom.
He said he has "outplayed" the $51 million contract he signed in 1999 and that "it's a new cornerback market right now, and I need to be at the top of that, too. You can't sit there and name no other corner in the game that's got the credentials that I got right now, and the championships to go along with it."
After saying all that, Law found the time to compare himself to a stock.
"I'm
Listen to Law for a while and you can hear traces of Eddie Murphy in his prime. But no matter how funny, charming, and outspoken he chooses to be in the next few weeks, Law isn't going anywhere. He is trying to claw his fingernails across the Patriots' chalkboard until Bill Belichick cringes. It's not going to work.
This winter of his discontent is going to lead him back to Foxborough in the fall.
If you haven't guessed by now, Law has a problem with his contract. He believes he is a temporary employee and the Patriots will eventually cut him in 2005 the same way they cut his friend Lawyer Milloy in 2003.
Law recently asked his bosses for a seven-year contract and a $20 million signing bonus. Not only did they decline, they declined at a time when players from other teams were tapping pinatas and watching stacks of cash fall from the sky.
No one questions that Law's talent is equal or superior to Champ Bailey's. But he wants his accounts, funds, and stocks to be equal and superior, as well.
Strip away the humor and the incendiary remarks, and you have a theme that's familiar to the modern sports fan: It's about the money. Part of Law's anger can be traced to his powerlessness in negotiations. He knows that all he can do is throw verbal stones at his employers, and he probably knows that they can take the pelting.