Rice Just Needs to Shut Up

Simeon Rice‘s comments on the Broncos are really getting to me. Talk about piss poor timing. Talk about selfishness. Calling out the coaching staff on a team that is lacking leadership. Rod Smith, Tom Nalen, Al Wilson – all gone due to injury. You’re on the free agent market for weeks, with few callers or workouts, and the Broncos come knocking and sign you to much more than anyone else thought you were worth ($3 million, many had suggested the veteran minimum). Everyone, including myself, would have hoped you would step up and be a leader in the locker room. Looks like the only place you’re leading this team is down the drain.

On whether he’s regretting joining the team –

“At this point I am,” he said. “My energy and purpose is to play and be the best. I’m not suiting up week to week and I don’t have any plain, concise answers.” …

Rice insists he’s now 100 percent and labels the discrepancy between his version and the team’s regarding his health as “a difference of opinion.”

“I’m really just trying to lock myself in and just make it through the year because I have no idea why I’ve been brought here – at all,” he said. “Things have been said. Things have been promised. Things have been told. And I’m at the point where I’m ready to perform and help this team out. They don’t have anything like me on this defense. But it is what it is.”

Just trying to make it through this year? How many times in your comments, Mr. Rice, did you mention “the team”? Oh, that’s right, when you said we’ve “got nothing like you on this defense. ” That’s a straight insult to both the coaches and your teammates. I don’t think I’ve ever had more disdain and loathing toward a Broncos player than I do towards you today. Even more than Jake Plummer when he flipped off the fans.

It’s about doing what’s best for the team. Just because you’re a veteran and potential Hall of Famer does not guarantee you a spot on the field. If you don’t put up, shut up.  And you’ve shown me little to nothing to impress me thus far.

Furthermore, Mr. Rice, you said you were 100% when we first signed you. Now you say “Oh, maybe I wasn’t 100% then, but I am now.” Give me a break. I hope Shanahan cuts you post haste.  We don’t need a cancer in the locker room, not when half of it is on the injured list already.