Graham Holds Out

Thus the saga begins. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Jeff Garcia is threatening to hold out, but now Earnest Graham has actually done it. With agent Drew Rosenhaus by his side, Graham will hold out until he gets a contract extension.

Jeff Garcia has been participating in the workouts, but Graham has been told to sit out to avoid injury. Graham has said that he cannot comment on the situation. It seems like he wants to rejoin the team, but is sitting out because his agent is telling him that this is the best solution.

Here’s what upsets me. I love Earnest Graham, and will always be grateful of what he did for the Bucs last season, but does he really deserve to hold out? Last season was his best, having never been much but a special teams guy before. He didn’t even have a full season to prove himself, and while he ran for almost 1,000 yards, does that really qualify him for a huge extension? How do we know that he wasn’t a one-hit wonder? I hate to think this way about him, but it seems to greedy to me.

On the other hand, is this all the doing of his agent? We all know Rosenhaus to be a blood-thirsty shark with no regard for human life. The possibility of him brainwashing Graham to believe he deserves the extension is more likely than Graham believing that he is worthy of it.

Whatever the problem is, I hope that the Bucs can fix it soon. They’ll need Earnest Graham, especially if Warrick Dunn suffers injury. The quicker this is resolved, the better. That way, Graham can get in all the workouts he needs.