Garcia Threatens To Retire After He Loses His Job?

Stephen Holder of the Times tried to clear up a misconception about Jeff Garcia's threat to retire, but in doing so, makes Garcia out to be either dumb as shit or the world's worst threat-maker.

Quarterback Jeff Garcia made reference in an interview Wednesday to retirement being an option if his contract stalemate with the Bucs isn't resolved.

But I feel it necessary to point out some important context that has been made clear to me this afternoon: Garcia was talking about 2009 -- not this fall. That was just emphasized to me by a person in position to know.

Here's Garcia's quote from the radio interview on Wednesday:

"If it doesn't work itself out, if a contract is not presented as far as a renewal to finish my career, then I will seriously think about what my alternate options may be. And it may come to not playing football anymore."

* blink *

So, let me get this straight. If Garcia doesn't get an extension and his contract with the Buccaneers expires, he may be forced to retire after the season? And that's going to stick it to the Bucs how? Because if the team didn't extend his contract, they kind of wanted him gone at the end of the season anyway, right? In fact, if his contract expires and he didn't have a good year, he may be forced to retire just because no other team wants to pick up a 40 year old quarterback who is coming off a bad year.

I think Holder's source is either wrong or Garcia is backpedaling from his retirement statement because he realized he'll have to repay some bonus money if he goes through with it. If Garcia's goal was to take a strong stand against the Buccaneers, threatening to quit after the season and after his contract expires is about the worst threat in history, and I'm including the time I threatened to run away from home, but not until my favorite show ended. I'll admit I'm not the sharpest candle on the cake, but I don't see an angle here that could possibly make Holder's story make sense.

And, no, I'm not posting Garcia stories just to put up pictures of his wife. It just happens to work out that way. Hey, rules are rules. But I'm running out of safe-for-work pictures, so if Garcia's contract dispute drags out, I may have to get familiar with Photoshop's blur filter (don't worry, I'll link to the unblurred versions... pervs.)