One of my guilty pleasures is waiting for Fred Ex (The People’s Champ) to pop up every three or so months with a classic quote that keeps me laughing for days.
This time Fred Ex warns Kevin Kolb about trusting Andy Reid (I think Kolb figured that out on his own) and passes along this story about how he went to Andy Reid to get traded.
“I tried,” Mitchell said. “I said, ‘Hey, coach Reid, I had problems with Donovan McNabb. You know I can’t eat off 12 catches a year. I need more catches. I’m doing all the things with the blocking and whatever else to make it happen. I need more catches. Donovan will not throw me the ball.’ Andy Reid was like, ‘OK, Fred, well just don’t tell nobody. You don’t have to come to this next mini-camp. We’re going to try to . . . I know a couple of teams and we’re going to try to trade you.’ At the end of the day what he tried to do was he tried to put a price tag on me that nobody was even going to touch. When they found out that they wasn’t going to touch me, he released me, and then the blackball began with all kinds of dirt saying I was a cancer to the team.”
“Kevin Kolb, do not think them guys or anybody in the NFL is your friend,” Mitchell said. “The only friend that you have is your agent and if you’re a left or right-handed quarterback is your arm. That’s it. Them guys at the end of the day they are going to go and save their job, save their butt, and go out and do what’s best for the Philadelphia Eagles.”
The trade story is funny, considering no one wanted to trade for Fred Ex even if the asking price was a cheese steak. With that being said his advice is sound to Kolb.
It is advice that can be applied to anything not just the NFL, the only person you can fully trust is yourself and in competitive situation people will look out for themselves and have no problem going back on their word.
Heed the words of The People’s Champ.