Wallace, Saunders and the double standard

By Mark Kaboly

The next time you find yourself complaining about a 'money-grubbing' athlete wanting to re-negotiate a contract or get an extension before his deal is up (like Mike Wallace), just think of Wes Saunders and how the Steelers handled that situation.

The Steelers held on to Saunders through his four-game suspension for taking adderall, brought him back, allowed him to practice two days, asked for a roster exemption until after Thursday's game against the Titans just to cut him Friday.

The Steelers knew on Monday that they were going to cut Saunders on Friday but still asked him back and pretended that he was part of the team.

They asked for the roster exemption just to cover their own backsides in case a tight end would've got injured against the Titans. If so, they would have Saunders as a back-up plan.

The Steelers were doing what was best for the organization and you can't criticize that, and I won't.

But when a player is doing what's best for him, we criticize.

Sounds kind of hypocritical to me.

http://sulia.com/channel/pittsburgh-steelers/f/1ac4b0b9-26e7-44e7-a98a-e38e3c70cefe/?source=twitter

maybe the Steelers will be letting Wallace go after the season.

This is exactly what I kept saying when Wallace's holdout began. At the end of the day, teams are going to do what's in their best interest, so players need to look after themselves. Loyalty, on both sides, takes a backseat to business.

1-I don't think we know the whole story
2-No team will give you the amount of money
that you're asking for specially if they don't think
You're worth it.

fer69 wrote:

1-I don't think we know the whole story

I'm always looking for more to the story, sometimes even when there isn't more to the story. But in this case, I really don't think there is more. Mark Kaboly said that no one was more surprised than Saunders. If there was more to the story, Saunders wouldn't have been surprised by his release.

I think every team, including the Steelers, has double standards.

Saunders, while a great choice, is not in the same league as Wallace. Likewise, Wallace is not in the same class as Hines. You can tell by the manner in which the team deals with them.

Likewise, the team is going to do what's in it's best interests at all times.

And you're right Wally, we do criticize the players and not the FO when they make 'Business' decisions. However, as fans, we do criticize the FO when early round draft picks are busts, without criticizing the player who didn't live up to his potential.

Double standards guess I'm guilty. I had no problem with Hines when he held out. He was a proven leader and veteran on the team and therefor I had no problems with his hold out...I'm also the biggest Hines Ward fan on the planet.

As for Wallie...not a vet or a proven leader, and I still question his commitment to going after the tough catches. I understand his holding out to try to make a statement but IMHO he held out to long. When the holdout can no longer help a situation he needs to end it. Even Hines ended his hold out before it got outta hand. While I don't begrudge Wallie for trying to make as much as he can I don't want to see us overpay for his services.