Sheppard "Hurt" By Lurie's Words

Often-injured corner back Lito Shepard is upset with his contract and has made the team known of that for a while. To make matters worse, he no claims he's "hurt" by owner Jeffrie Lurie's commitment to making running back Brian Westbrook happy. I guess it also won't help that Westbrook got his contract today.

In Lurie's "State of the Franchise Address" earlier this week, he said that Westbrook out-performed his 5 year, $25 million contract he received in 2005 and is considered one of Lurie's favorite players on the team.

Sheppard, on the other hand, hasn't played an injury free season since 2004, the same year he signed his 8 year, $26 million deal. But what irked the former Pro Bowl corner the most was that Lurie used a peculiar stat to discredit Sheppard, instead of his inability to stay healthy.

He said that Sheppard's YPA (Yards per attempt) was too high, a weak reason indeed. "I guess he has got to find something bad against me, huh?" said Sheppard. "If you have to dig that deep to find something I'm not good at than that shows you how good of a player I am."

Sheppard may be right. He is a very talented corner with play making ability. He is also a better athlete than Sheldon Brown. But he is injury prone. He can not stay healthy. He can not expect to be rewarded for being injury prone. If he played full seasons the last 3 years then yes he can complain.

It seems that Lurie and Sheppard both have no clue what they are arguing about for whether or not Lito deserves this deal. Lurie has always been cheap. He screwed T.O., almost pissed off Westy, and now has found a bull shit excuse to not pay Lito when he could have easily said, "Look. You get hurt too much."

Hey Lito. Play 16 games and perform the way you have when healthy and I can see that cheap son of a bitch actually rewarding you. But remember. You have to earn it.