NFL player says he'll refuse to play until Week 8 as contract dispute continues
NFL superstar Chris Jones says he will not play until week eight of the season as his contract dispute continues.
The Kansas City Chiefs player is in the final year of £15.8million ($20m) a year contract and while the franchise want to give him a new deal, they have yet to reach an agreement. The defensive tackle reportedly wants a new deal to be worth £23.7m ($30m) a year, and The Athletic reports he wants to be "at least the second-highest-paid player at his position".
Now the 29-year-old has taken things a step further to negotiate his preferred deal by stating he will not play until week eight of the upcoming season. A fan tweeted: “@StoneColdJones so when ya gonna show up cause you be playin to much on Twitter and social media. you’ve been an all-pro on social media during training camp. You’re under contract for this year correct for how much money. Man I bet it’s rough to live on 20 million in a year.”
He responded bluntly: "Week 8." Arrowhead Live, a fan site for the reigning Super Bowl champions, responded to the tweet and said: “That’d be a hefty tab,” referring to a potential fine for refusing to play despite being under contract. “I can afford it”, said Jones, who is ready to do what it takes to get what he believes he is worth.
Jones has already failed to report to the Chiefs' training camp and received a fine of £39,565 ($50,000) for each day he was not present. Commenting on the holdout earlier this month, Chiefs G.M. Brett Veach said the franchise has no desire to trade Jones.
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“I think for all parties, I think the best resolution would be for him to end his career as a Chief — and get that financial security — and for us to do what we had set out to do,” Veach told the Kansas City Star. “That’s to work through last offseason with this offseason in mind and get some young guys, which we did that, and then focus on this year and getting Chris done. “Hopefully, we get this resolved, but we have no intentions of making a trade.”
He added: “He’s a great player, and he wants a big contract. He deserves a big contract, and I don’t think there’s any surprises in that regard. But there’s just some hurdles we have to work through in regards to how we can keep this thing going for the short- and long-term.
Chiefs star Chris Jones is one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL and wants $30 million a year in a new deal (Getty)“But we’ve never wavered on, ‘This is a guy that we want to exhaust all of our efforts to get done,’ because that’s how much we think of him.” Jones recorded 44 tackles, 15.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, and 1 fumble recovery last season and three of his tackles came in the Chiefs' 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs know his value and it is very unlikely they will be able to replace Jones before the start of their title defence next month if they were to trade him. “Sometimes these things take some time,” Veach added.
“So we’ll just continue to press away and work through that and hopefully make some movement here. We went into this, and as we’re having these ongoing dialogues, our intent and desire has always been to get Chris Jones secured for the foreseeable future, and we’re gonna press on with that mindset.”
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