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In an interview Tuesday morning, Javon Walker’s stepfather said not money, not the passage of time and not the retirement of Brett Favre could change the wide receiver’s aversion for the team that drafted him in the first round in 2002.
“They could give him a $15 million signing bonus and he would decline it,” Charles Goldsmith said. “I think everybody is thinking it’s going to blow over and Javon’s going to show up. He’s not showing up. I mean, he is absolutely not showing up. Period. At all.”
During a 35-minute conversation, there were 23 occasions in which Goldsmith categorically and almost matter-of-factly said Walker’s days as a Packer were over.
Last month, Goldsmith sat next to Walker when he discussed his future with coach Mike McCarthy for about half an hour.
“He said, ‘It has nothing to do with you,’” Goldsmith said. “He said, ‘I don’t want to play in Green Bay ever again and I’m not coming back.’ He said, ‘If you force me to come back, you’re really going to have a terrible cancer on your hands.’
“He doesn’t want to do like ‘T.O.’ (Terrell Owens) did and cause a big disturbance. He doesn’t want to do what Mike McKenzie did. We really tried to handle this very professional. I talked to Ted (Thompson). He talked to McCarthy. Kennard (McGuire) talked to both of them. We talked to Andrew (Brandt). And they just refused.”
Neither Thompson, the general manager, nor team President Bob Harlan would comment Tuesday on Goldsmith’s remarks.
On Jan. 20, Goldsmith said he had a 30-minute conversation with Thompson in which he spelled out precisely why his stepson would never play again for the Packers and that he wanted to be traded.
“He told me, ‘Charles, certainly the last thing I want to do is trade Javon,’” Goldsmith said. “‘But, if he’s unhappy, I have to take all this stuff under consideration. I can’t promise you anything.’”
McGuire, the agent for Walker, not only requested a trade but also asked Thompson for permission to shop his client. Thompson refused.
Even though Walker underwent knee surgery Oct. 7 for a torn anterior cruciate ligament and torn meniscus cartilage, there’s little doubt that the Packers could trade him. It might be an all-time weak year in the draft for wide receivers, and as a result a slew of commonplace wide receivers has received more lucrative contracts than expected in free agency.
At this point, the crop of free-agent wide receivers has been picked clean.
On Tuesday, the Rocky Mountain News reported that the Denver Broncos had made informal inquiries about acquiring Walker. Thompson said teams talk all the time about trades but declined specifically to discuss the report.
Does Goldsmith ultimately expect the Packers to trade Walker, as they did with the disgruntled McKenzie in October 2004?
“I think they will,” he said. “I don’t think they’re going to have much of a choice. We’re hoping that some rational thought will take place and Ted will realize that, hey, even if you go to the end of this year, you’re going to lose him and you get nothing in return.”
If push comes to shove, Walker could report for the final six games, the minimum necessary for him to gain an accrued season and fulfill his original five-year contract. However, the Packers could place the franchise tag on Walker next February and retain his services.
On Sunday, Goldsmith and his wife, Bernita, arrived in Green Bay to arrange for all of Walker’s belongings to be shipped and to put his Green Bay house up for sale. Goldsmith, a senior vice president for Primerica Financial Services in Houston, is married to Javon’s mother and said he had been closely involved in his stepson’s life since seventh grade.
Walker hasn’t been in Green Bay other than a brief end-of-season exit interview and refused to accompany his parents this week.
“Javon just doesn’t like the environment,” Goldsmith said. “It’s not just Brett. It’s the team. There have been a lot of things that have been done to him underhanded that he knows about. He does not enjoy Green Bay and does not enjoy even thinking about Green Bay.”
If the Packers ignore Walker’s trade demands and sit on him, Goldsmith thinks it could hurt them in the long run.
“Most people don’t realize that most of these players are friends and they talk,” Goldsmith said. “They have their own little fraternity. Other players are watching what’s happening with Javon and Green Bay.
“They watched how Green Bay let those two guards get away and let somebody else pay them more money. They watched how Darren Sharper had to go to Minnesota. They watched how (Ryan) Longwell signed with Minnesota and didn’t even give Green Bay the opportunity to match it.
“They’re watching what (Aaron) Kampman went through to try to get his money right up to free agency. Ahman Green played here and got all those yards and he gets a one-year sorry contract. There was the Bubba Franks thing.
“They see this stuff and, after a while, this situation with Javon will not help Green Bay at all attracting players. I mean, they treat their players terrible. And it’s not like they don’t have the money.”
As much as Favre’s words stung last spring when Walker was preparing to hold out with two years left on his deal, Goldsmith said lack of response by management might have poisoned his stepson’s relationship with the team even more.
“I told Ted you could have just come out with a statement and said, ‘Brett does not speak for the team. We just handle all these matters internally,’” Goldsmith said. “But I told Ted, ‘You said absolutely nothing. How can you sit up there and let a player rip another player and then expect him to come back and expect him to be best of buddies and win together?’ That’s not the real world.
“Who’s running the team? Does Brett run the team or does Ted run the team?”
If Favre quits, Walker’s disgust with the Packers would not change, according to his stepfather.
“Javon is not fond of Brett,” Goldsmith said. “All that stuff on the field when they score touchdowns and they’re high-fiving, that’s for show. He just doesn’t want to play with him anymore.
“Last year, Brett Favre did something that I thought was wrong. I wish someone would tell Brett, ‘What if someone blasted one of your daughters on national TV? What would you do?’
“He didn’t even pick up a phone as a leader and call Javon. Never has he once called Javon. He didn’t have to go to the media.
“Then to have other people, other players come out and talk about that. Even Bart Starr said that Brett Favre has the right to do that. He has nothing to do with this.
“Brett said he was prepared to move on without Javon. Well, you moved on quite well, Brett. You threw 29 interceptions. If anybody would look at the film, they’d see those balls Brett Favre would just throw up into the air and Javon somehow magically goes and gets them.”
Walker, 27, is back and forth between Houston and Tallahassee, Fla., where he is studying to complete his undergraduate degree at Florida State. The house he is selling in Green Bay was purchased about two years ago from defensive end Jamal Reynolds, his former Florida State teammate.
His base salary for 2006 is $1.15 million.
In something of a surprise, Walker ended his threatened holdout and reported in time for the start of training camp in 2005. The influence of his stepfather was evident in his decision.
"I told Javon, 'You need to go back,'" Goldsmith said. "He said, 'I don't want to go back.' I said, 'But we need to get this accrued season. You need four accured seasons to be an unrestricted free agent. Your leverage is very slim.'"