BU54

Faneca says this is his final year with Steelers
Thursday, July 19, 2007

Peter Diana, Post-Gazette
Alan Faneca -- "I don't think I'll have bells on but I'll be there."

By Ed Bouchette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Alan Faneca plans to report with his teammates for the start of training camp on time Monday, but it will be his final summer at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.

"I'll be there. I don't think I'll have bells on but I'll be there," Faneca said yesterday from his home in Louisiana.

Faneca, a captain and the most decorated guard in team history with six Pro Bowls, will enter the final year of his contract with the Steelers. He said he will play for another team in 2008 because no talks have taken place for an extension. Faneca will become an unrestricted free agent in March. He skipped all of the team's spring drills except for the required minicamp.

Although still upset about his contract situation, Faneca promised he would not be a distraction to the team this year and will perform as he has in his previous nine seasons with the team.

"I'm going to go about my business and play football. Any distraction would be through the media and how they perceive me going about my business of playing football.

"It's about playing with the guys next to you and playing for a job as well. It's a true sense of playing for a job. It just happens to be somewhere else the following year."

Faneca, 30, said the Steelers offered him a contract early this year but said it was so low it would not have put him among the top 10 guards in the league and called it merely a tool so club management could claim it offered him an extension. He will play for a salary of $3,375,000 this season in addition to a $1 million roster bonus he received in March.

FULL STORY
Faneca says this is his final year with Steelers

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Bears always have and always will need a quarterback!! But not a MLB.


10-7-07 Bears 27,Packers 20
12-23-07 Bears 35, Packers 7
Then Brett Favre became a Jet...

chris_36824

Sucks for the Steelers. It can't be fun losing one of the best guards in the NFL.

Professor

he is just a replaceable cog in a perpetually running machine

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chris_36824

If you say so...

BucBaller

Faneca provides leadership just as much as play. They will lose a huge role when he leaves.

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Go Bucs!!!!

chris_36824

Agreed.

BucBaller

I mean, seriously, if you were to turn to someone on the offense for help, it would be him. He is a great player and good luck to Pitt when trying to replace him.

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Go Bucs!!!!

Professor

meh, I know they drafted Cam Stephenson to replace him as it was known that he wasn't going to be around much longer and they are high on him and he has Faneca to learn from.

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BucBaller

Faneca could very well refuse just like Favre refused to tutor Rodgers. The leadership role is more of it, you cannot replace that.

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Go Bucs!!!!

Professor

if he refuses to help the team grow for when he is gone than he isn't a leader. He will help the kid learn because he is a leader. If He is the leader of the offense and not BigBen or someone more prolific then they have bigger problems.

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