Wayne, who signed a six-year, $39 million contract, is scheduled to earn $5.47 million this season and $5.95 million next season.
"I play football. That's what I do," he told the Star. “I love the game. It goes deeper than contract talks; I like doing this. I ain't getting any younger and football is my passion.”
Wayne has made a tradition of high-profile entrances at training camp. In 2007, he arrived in fatigues because the defending Super Bowl Champion Colts would be “hunted” throughout the season, and this past season, teammates said Wayne set the tone for the season by arriving in a dump truck and hard hat, declaring the Colts would be ready to go to work to return to the Super Bowl.
"I've always got something planned," Wayne told the Star. “Hopefully everything falls into place and I end up at Anderson on time.”
Whether that will happen is hard to predict. Wayne is unlikely to get a new deal in two weeks. Colts President Bill Polian has said publicly on several occasions that structuring deals now is difficult because of the uncertainty over the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement. The extent of that difficulty is evident because the Colts have yet to extend the contract of QB Peyton Manning, something Colts Owner and Chief Executive Officer Jim Irsay said the team wanted to do in the off-season.
Manning, unlike Wayne, attended the Colts' off-season workouts and mini-camp, and is expected to report to training camp on time. Wayne in nine previous seasons always has attended training camp, and it's important to note that during that career, he has been a respected, team-oriented player and has been decidedly professional and classy at a position known for diva-ish, individualistic attitude.
If Wayne does opt to continue making his point by missing part of training camp, it would be out of character, but his history should give him some benefit of the doubt before he's painted as a selfish, me-first player.
Still, the guess is – given Wayne's comments to the Star Saturday and given his history of respect for the game and team – that somehow, someway he'll be entering camp on August 1 and doing so in characteristic style.
Comments
Hi, my name is Reggie Wayne, and my timing is just *awesome*. What's that? The last time you saw me I was falling down on routes, giving up on routes, and generally helping my team lose the Super Bowl? Oh, and you say the Colts are loaded to the gills with contract issues, as well as loaded at WR? Yeah, I know, but look, it's time to start talking about how I need to get paid more.
If you watch the SB video in slo-mo you will see that it wasn't just Waynes slow route running that caused that interception, Manning lead his run way to much for him to be able to catch up with the pass.
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