Jacksonville Jaguars’ cornerback, Rashean Mathis, refuses to call it a day in football career – NFL News
Jacksonville Jaguars’ cornerback, Rashean Mathis, has refused to call it a day in his professional career, saying he wants to play more football in spite of his recent health concerns.
Mathis missed most of the 2011 National Football League (NFL) season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), which he had suffered in the game against the Indianapolis Colts on November 13, last year. He is still out from the side while nursing his
season-ending injury.
His absence from the team for so long has led to some speculations, recently, that the player was nearing end of his career.
The cornerback, while denying that being far from a possibility, said that he wanted to keep playing for his side in the future and end his career with them.
He said:
"That is still a part of me. There will be a day where I wash my hands of it and say, 'The Lord has allowed me to do great things,' but that's not here. My time is not up yet."
He added:
"I'm not ready to let go of my guys yet, the locker room, the camaraderie we have."
His deal with Jaguars is about to run out and he is expected to hit the free agency market on March 13, 2012.
It is not clear if he holds prospects for renewal of the deal with Jaguars as the new management and owner of the team have not hinted at such a probability yet.
Jaguars, during the tenure of their interim coach, Mel Tucker, following selling of the team to their present owner, Shahid Khan, had cut a number of players, and there is a likelihood that they might release a few more, including Mathis, who are due to
become free agent.
The team management has not spoken of any plans of bringing back their players off the free agency market or whether their salary cap allows them to do so, which is also expected to benefit Mathis.
Mathis himself has hoped against arising of such a situation, saying despite the looming free agency date, he expects a comeback to Jaguars.
He said:
"That's what I want and there is hope. Hopefully, I don't hit free agency. The people who work for me know that and my agency knows that and they have always known that. I've never kept that a secret, but I understand the evaluation process that has to go
on and the trust process with this injury that has to go on."
The player, in the meantime, has confirmed that he was quite ahead of his schedule of recovery, well before the free agency deadline of March 13, 2012.
Mathis has played for Jaguars for about nine years, after being picked up second round draft in 2003.
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