For a career Charger, it wasn’t the storybook ending Eric Weddle imagined. With his team with one leg out of the city, it was an emotional time as the season came to an end. It would get more emotional forWeddle. Quote via Bleacher Report:
“What are you guys still doing here?” McCoy said, according to Weddle.
“We’re figuring out the roster for next year,” Weddle said. “And you have a lot of work to do.”
Then McCoy surprised him.
“Where are you going to go next year?” he said. “Any particular team you want to go to?”
Weddle didn’t know what to say.
“That’s when it finally hit me,” he says. “They really don’t want me back.”
The way I see it, that was cold blooded-low-key shade thrown by Coach McCoy. It was saying everything somehow packaged as something friendly. More from BR:
“I never did one thing wrong. Never was late to a meeting. Never was fined. Never refused to do a charity function for them. Never didn’t sacrifice. I was a leader, a captain, an All-Pro. And they showed me the door. I’m as loyal as anyone and will do anything for people I respect. But if you don’t give that back to me in return, you’re dead to me. So I could never go back to that place after what they put me through.”
It sucks to see the cold hearted business that happens in the NFL. If you’re lucky in the real world, if you put your heart and soul into your business/career then usually the tenure will pay off, but when age is as important as it is in the NFL, you get no loyalty.
With that said, I believe there is no excuse, other than your own faults, to treat people poorly. Every time I have, I’ve looked back on it and regretted it- the fault usually falls on myself. There is always a way to be gracious, even when you’re releasing a long time veteran of your team, it might just take more effort.