Vikings cornerback Antoine Winfield issued a statement late tonight regarding his absence from the Vikings’ offseason practices. Winfield is entering the last year of his contract and has not attended any of the Vikings’ OTAs and also missed the three-day minicamp last weekend.

Asked about the contract issue today, coach Brad Childress said: “I would not speak for him. I’d say you have to ask him. I’m not coloring it any way. You would have to check his reasons.”

So we did.

And this was Winfield’s response: “I want all to know that I’m not at OTAs because I don’t want to be there. I do want to be there! As I have stated before, I want to finish my career a Viking.”

If you stumble over that first sentence read it aloud and it will help. Winfield’s point is he does want to be at OTAs and he does want to finish his career in Minnesota.

However, neither Winfield or Childress mentions that the reality of the situation is this is all about a contract. Business is business, folks. It doesn’t mean something isn’t going to get done but for right now things are on hold and both sides are holding firm.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 11:40 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.