Will Pro Bowl be White's final game?
Posted: Monday February 01, 1999 08:52 PM
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Please don't go: Packers QB Brett Favre has also talked to Reggie White about coming back Jed Jacobsohn/Allsport |
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Reggie
White, in Hawaii for his record 11th Pro Bowl appearance, is preparing
to strap on the shoulder pads one last time.
Or is he?
White insisted all year that this was his final season, and at 37, he had
a great farewell, garnering 16 sacks and the NFL Defensive Player of the
Year award.
Like Michael Jordan, he went out on the top of his considerable game.
But White, who changed his mind 48 hours after announcing his retirement
last April, gave Green Bay
Packers fans another glimmer of hope Sunday.
On the Fox network show before the Super Bowl, White, who was due to make
$3.9 million in 1999, said he was "intrigued" about the idea of returning
to play under new coach Ray Rhodes.
"When Ray got the job, if anyone else had gotten the job I wouldn't have
been intrigued," White told Fox. "I've really been praying about it and
thinking about it. Right now I'm retired."
White's agent, Jimmy Sexton, said he doesn't think White will change his
mind despite several meetings between his client and Rhodes, who replaced
Mike Holmgren.
"He's been intrigued by the idea of playing for Ray, but I don't know if
it's enough to talk him out of retiring," Sexton said Monday from Memphis,
Tenn. "I don't think he'll play next year, that's just my gut feeling. He
hasn't expressed to me that he's going to.
"I know that Reggie just absolutely thinks the world of Ray as a coach
and as a person, just absolutely loves him," Sexton said. "But I think
after those conversations are over with, at the end of the day, he's still
saying, 'I did what I had to do this year. I proved to everybody that I was
the best defensive player in the league. And that's how I'm going to go
out."'
White was en route to Hawaii on Monday and Rhodes was shuttling between
Green Bay and Philadelphia.
Quarterback Brett
Favre has also tried to change White's mind.
"Seriously, I am trying my best," Favre said last month. "Heck, he got 16
sacks. Well, OK, he has an off-year next year and has 12. That's 12 we
could use."
The Packers' two biggest needs after failing to return to the Super Bowl
are retooling the defensive line and soft secondary. White's return would
help immensely.
Sexton said contrary to published reports, White wasn't angered when the
Packers made him available to the expansion draft for the Cleveland Browns.
Sexton said general manager Ron Wolf had informed White before doing it.
"They discussed it and Reggie wanted him to do whatever would help the
team," Sexton said. "I don't think Cleveland would take him, I really
don't."
The Browns would have to assume the final three years of a five-year, $19
million extension White signed in December 1996, and White has said he
wanted to retire in the Packers green and gold.
Even though he doesn't think White, who made $2.6 million last season,
will "unretire" like last year, Sexton said he doesn't like to see players
make up their minds this early.
"I personally don't ever like for my clients to make decisions about
retirement within 30 days of the season either way, because I think that
you make the wrong decision sometimes then," Sexton said. "You ought to
make the decision in April or May. That's when you've gotten away from the
emotional parts of the game, you can sit down with your family and look at
whether you should or should not play.
"But Reggie's been pretty consistent that this is his last year."
Rhodes, as defensive coordinator, helped persuade White to sign with the
Packers as a free agent in 1992 when his arrival from Philadelphia as the
first big-time free agent to switch teams signaled the beginning of the
Packers' return to glory.
Rhodes and Holmgren flew to White's home in Tennessee as he was pondering
his decision that winter.
"If they wouldn't have done that, I probably wouldn't have come here,"
White said last month. "That impressed me more than anything."
White extended his record to 13 consecutive Pro Bowl selections in 1998.
He's missed the game twice with injuries, including last year.
He plans to play Sunday, breaking a tie with Lawrence Taylor, Ronnie Lott
and Mike Singletary, all of whom played in 10 Pro Bowls.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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