Sep
McCallum seeking trade from Lions
Courtesy Montreal Gazette:
Bitterness. Anger. Disappointment. Of all the emotions Paul McCallum displayed on Monday, frustration seemed to be at the very foundation of all of them.
The veteran B.C. Lions kicker seemed genuinely baffled with his current situation following practice at the team’s headquarters in Surrey. A practice in which the 39-year-old’s workload consisted of taking reps behind rookie Sean Whyte, which equalled two field goal attempts at the very end of the 90-minute session. Whyte, 23, inherited the starter’s job on July 10, when McCallum suffered knee and wrist injuries against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
McCallum just came off the nine-game injury list last week.
“If they don’t want me, I don’t want to be here,” said McCallum, who was given permission to seek out a trading partner last week, something the Lions had failed to do in the weeks before. “I want to play, but Wally [Buono's] made up his mind with what he wants to do, so then let’s move on. I don’t want to be here if I’m not going to play. Simple as that. It doesn’t make any sense why I stuck my neck on the line and broke my wrist making a tackle, trying to help the team out, and now I don’t have a job. I can’t make sense of it.”
Buono said the decision to keep Whyte as the team’s starter was strictly a business decision — a case of putting the team before the player. Even if the said player relocated his family here in the off-season after signing a three-year contract extension with the Lions. And even if the said player has done everything asked of him over the past five seasons. Especially, even if the said player is a sound believer in the philosophy that you should never lose your job to injury.
“I’m sorry Paul feels betrayed, but things have changed,” said the Lions general manager and coach, adding he feels he kept up his end of the bargain by giving McCallum the benefit of the doubt coming out of training camp.
“Paul gets paid very well to come out and do a job. At the end of the day, a professional puts aside their emotions — whether they are good bad or indifferent — and does the job.
“It’s not just a simple thing. I understand how he feels and can appreciate how he feels, but be a team guy,” continued Buono. “We all have to sacrifice for the team.”
Which is what you can expect McCallum to do today. Deep down, he knows there’s no way Buono’s going to release him because as a veteran player the Lions would still have to pay the remainder of McCallum’s salary. Outside retirement, there is no other choice for the veteran but to stay and watch Whyte do the kicking.
Unless, of course, McCallum has more money than brains.
“I don’t want him to retire,” said Buono. “But if getting paid doesn’t mean that much to him, if being part of a team doesn’t mean that much to him, then he has that option.”
For his part, Whyte is not taking sides.
“It’s not my issue,” said Whyte. “It’s got nothing to do with me. Paul and I are still friends. He said it in the dressing room earlier, that it’s not my fault. Every athlete wants to play, but Wally’s given me a great opportunity that now and in the long run will make me better player.”
