CB Rashad Barksdale learned by text message he was cut by the Giants last week - and from a former teammate, not the team..
"I heard you got released," CB Terrell Thomas texted Barksdale. "Sorry about that."
"It was a shock," Barksdale told the Albany Times-Union. "I felt I was making improvement. ... The shocking thing about it is, I didn't receive any phone calls from anybody. I found out through a teammate."
The University at Albany product was a somewhat surprising cut to make room on the 80-man roster for the signing of draft pick CB Stoney Woodson. He said he eventually got a voicemail from Giants secondary coach Peter Giunta, who told him, "Sorry things didn't work out. You did a great job."
Yet it was very unlike the Giants not to have someone call Barksdale and tell him personally he was cut. "You know, it's the classy thing to do," said Barksdale, who hopes to catch on with another NFL team.
Unfortunate, but things like this do happen. The process usually works as designed, but now and then, when a process is made up almost entirely of people (no hardware or software), then errors will occur. It was unlike the Giants, because that's not how the Giants do business... as in that's not their business process for dealing with players being released. We all know that. So it's unfortunate, and shouldn't happen to anybody. But it did. As a SUNY Albany alumni, I was really pulling for Rashad to be on my beloved Giants. Alas, not to be. Wish he could have at least made it back to Albany for camp.
Posted by: cdrusnret | June 23, 2009 at 10:00 PM