FOXBOROUGH – The Christian Gonzalez situation isn’t any clearer after both he and Mike Vrabel spoke on Thursday afternoon.
Karen Guregian of MassLive and Sophie Weller of PatriotsWire both spoke with Gonzalez in the locker room individually before practice, but the star cornerback remains mum on his contract negations with the team set to depart for Seattle in four days.
Gonzalez told Weller he’s “not sure” whether anything will get done between now and kickoff against the Seahawks.
Before the media had locker room access, Mike Vrabel was asked several questions about the situation. Here’s everything he had to say:
On Gonzalez’ trainer speaking to 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Felger & Mazz earlier in the week
“No, again, no comments and nothing new to report with Christian [Gonzalez] other than, I think I pretty much covered everything I could there with Mike’s [Reiss] question, but nothing new to report contractually. I am trying to get him ready for the football game, trying to get him ready on the first-and-second-down stuff that we are doing today, and how he can help us win.”
On if the staff needs to create a game plan without Gonzalez incase he sits out Week 1
“We have to prepare for everything to potentially happen, whether that is players’ availability through multiple different reasons. So, we will have to be ready for a lot of things, and as we work here into Week 1 and the craziness of the National Football League [NFL] and the journey that we are about to go on.”
On if he’s worried about the contract becoming a distraction
“I think we want to try to be as ready and prepared for the football game as we possibly can. I think distractions come in a lot of different ways, and it is how we handle them, how we respond to them. So again, I love coaching Christian [Gonzalez]. He is a valuable member of this football team, and we will continue to have discussions, but I do not have anything else to add about the contract.”
On if he expects Gonzalez to play in Seattle
“As I said a couple of days ago, as the head coach, I expect every player that is healthy and under contract to practice and to play. Again, that may change based on my conversations with different players and the plan that they have each and every day when you talk about practice or what the plan may be for the football game. So that goes with this situation and anybody else who would fall underneath that, that is what our expectation is.”
The roller coaster that is these negotiations with the team and its star defensive back continue to take several twists and turns. The good news is that there’s still time for this to all go away before the opener.
The bad news – especially if Gonzalez chooses not to play next Wednesday night – is that then, the franchise will be scrambling to recoup all the good will win the fan base it picked up last season.