CB hasn't found right offer, health questions loom
Posted: Monday June 27, 2005 12:39PM; Updated: Thursday June 30, 2005 8:52AM
Ty Law played just seven games in 2004 and had only one interception.
Rick Stewart/Getty Images
MAILBAG
Peter King will answer your questions each week in Monday Morning Quarterback: Tuesday Edition.
As we enter the real offseason (when only hard-liners like Tom Brady will be working out at facilities now -- and I'm not kidding about that one), here's my question of the month: Where's Ty Law going to play this year?
"I'm going to be the best cornerback in football this year,'' Law told me the other night, from his home in Aliquippa, Pa., after returning from a workout with the Jaguars. "I'm just not sure where that's going to be yet.''
The next three weeks are going to be absolutely dead in footballville. BillBelichick will be on his beloved Nantucket. Brian Billick disappears to the wilds of Minnesota. Bill Parcells goes to the barns at Saratoga Race Course at dawn. Fred-ExMitchell's going to Brazil. And so on. Coaches will start filtering back to work between July 18 and July 25. (This column will take the next three weeks off too, and reappear July 25, the day I leave on my 17-day training-camp odyssey.) Until then, not much will happen in the NFL. Except some teams will flirt with Ty Law.
"I'm still the best out there until someone proves he's better,'' he said.
Well, that's debatable. Highly debatable. Last time we saw Law, he was limping off the field in Pittsburgh on Halloween afternoon with a serious foot injury. He had suffered a fracture in his left foot, which healed by late in the season, but also had a Lisfranc ligament sprain, which didn't heal and which Law claims was not diagnosed by the Patriots medical staff. It wasn't until he went to see Dr. Mark Myerson, one of the country's foremost foot and ankle specialists (he operated on Terrell Owens after T.O.'s ankle injury last season), that Law learned he had the ligament sprain. "If it had been diagnosed on time,'' Law told me, "I'd have been ready for someone's minicamp. But now I'm about 85 percent and I know I'll be fine for training camp.''
The question is where. "I had a good workout in Jacksonville,'' he said. "They told me, 'Play corner,' and I went and did all the drills -- plant, cut, do every angle you can possibly do, sprint. I was fine. Now Miami wants me to come back and visit. But if you can't afford Patrick Surtain [who was dealt to Kansas City in April], how can you afford me? The Jets are interested. Kansas City called again. Tampa Bay faxed an offer. Indianapolis is in it. I got an offer, sight unseen for $2.5 million for one year. If I wasn't ready, I'd just take it. But I'm going to be ready to play and that's not the kind of contract I should get. Before they signed Surtain, the Chiefs gave me, like, a $42 million offer. But it was structured so bad that I'd probably only make $10 million before they'd cut me. So I didn't do it.''