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August 28, 2007

Morning wrap: Asante chats

Hey all --

Asante Samuel was in good spirits today as he addressed a massive media throng in front of his locker.

Though on the surface it appears that Samuel got no more and no less than what he had coming to him -- the one-year guaranteed franchise tender, and no promise that he won't be franchised again next year -- he claimed that both sides are happy with how things went down.

"I'm good. I'm ready to play football," he said, adding that he actually missed two-a-days. "I really did miss it. I missed joking with the guys on the field, things like that."

Samuel realizes that he'll likely have to earn back his spot as a starter, and knows that he has work to do given that his teammates have been on the field for a month getting ready for the season.

He also wondered who "ratted" him out about his arrival to the area on Sunday night, and yours truly 'fessed up to that afterwards, but he wasn't mad about it.

Elsewhere in the locker room, Kyle Brady was his entertaining, thoughtful self, and spoke about teammate Randy Moss, who he said is pretty funny.

"He has a great sense of humor; he calls guys out in the locker room, he has a great locker room personality. He likes to clown around. He's a good guy to have around," he said.

We had an interesting chat with longshot receiver Chris Dunlap, who we noticed was swarmed by autograph seekers last night at the Kickoff Gala. The reason? Much as we suspected, most of the fans thought Dunlap was Laurence Maroney. When Dunlap had a picture of Maroney thrust into his hands and had to admit that he wasn't Maroney, some fans didn't believe him. While they do look similar, it's a lesson: know your players before you get signatures.

shalise

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 11:55 AM | Permalink