Not necessarily a done deal
http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2006/07...n_willie_roaf/
excerpt:
Q: What do you know about Willie Roaf’s impending retirement?
CARL PETERSON: “It’s never an easy decision to retire and people do change their minds. I think there were people here last year who remember a guy named Will Shields who a lot of people speculated was going to retire and right up to training camp, I think, he thought about it very much and changed his mind. So, people can change their minds.
“Because of Willie Roaf and who he is, we want to give him the respect and the time to evaluate this. Again, to date, I still haven’t talked to him and neither has (head coach) Herman (Edwards). I think it would be appropriate if he did speak with us.”
Q: Are you surprised you haven’t talked to him?
PETERSON: “Yeah, but I had conversation over time with his agent, Peter Schaeffer, who has felt that Willie is going to play football in 2006. But ultimately it comes down to a player’s decision. Certainly we’ve been through this before with John Alt and Tim Grunhard and Joe Montana and Marcus Allen. But at this point we’re going to keep the door open – allow him if he wants to change his mind over the next few weeks to do that.”
Q: Any indication that this would be a money situation or that he didn’t want to come to camp?
PETERSON: “No, it’s certainly not money. That’s never been a discussion. He has a contract this year for a sizable amount of money if he comes and plays. Basically, very frankly, the last time I saw him at OTAs (on the field activities during the off-season) he was very excited about the fact that Will Shields was back, very excited about Herman Edwards as the new head football coach, very excited about the promotion of Mike Solari as offensive coordinator who has coached him the last four years. He seemed to be in a very good frame of mind.
“But I do appreciate and respect that players who have played a long time don’t want to come to training camp. I know (former Chiefs offensive tackle and Pro Bowler) John Alt hated training camp, would hold out and wait and I finally had to buy him a big orthopedic bed because he complained about the dorms. Maybe that’s what I’ll need to do for Willie.”
Q: With John Welbourn retiring last month and now potentially Willie Roaf, what’s the mindset of the organization? Are you looking to free agency?
PETERSON: “No, we’ve been making plans for this some time. Jordan Black started more games last year than John Welbourn did. We drafted a young guy named Will Svitek who had an outstanding year in the NFLEL. I think he’s got great promise.
“The starting right tackle for our football team at the beginning of training camp was Kevin Sampson and I fully expect he will be our starting right tackle again this year, and/or Kyle Turley who has played both right and left tackle who is a very good acquisition that we made a number of weeks ago. When he played he was an outstanding player and a legitimate starting guy.
“We still have our three interior (linemen) which is the guts and core of our offensive line: Brian Waters, Casey Wiegmann and Will Shields. We’ve got a lot of other young offensive linemen that we’ve been bringing along and we’re looking forward to seeing how they progress this training camp.
“It hasn’t been a situation that we haven’t been anticipating. When you have a player that’s going into his 14th year – both a tackle and a guard – you make preparations and we have in the last couple of years in the draft as well as the acquisition not too long ago in Kyle Turley.”
http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2006/07...n_willie_roaf/
Willie Roaf Retires
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