Clayton after signing a five-year, $26-million contract late Saturday night discussed the Bucs need for tougher players that shared his mentality:
"[Raheem] pulled me aside and I asked him, 'Rah, how many guys on this team do you think would do whatever it takes to win? He pointed out about five guys. Many of the coaches thought things were going one way and we should maybe go another way. Now I see what he's doing, surrounding himself with guys who will fight, who are warriors, who are physical and will change the mentality. When we come out of that locker room, I promise you, with the guys he's putting around him, the other team should be intimidated by how hard we play." - St. Pete Times
Clayton has more to say:
"It was a long five years and a lot of things didn't go my way. I made the best of the situation and I played hard. Coach Gruden wanted a different role from me. I don't have to play on eggshells. All of that is gone. It's rewarding to get another run at this thing and I'm ready to win some games. I love the game of football and I play it with passion. Every coach I met, not one could say anything bad about me during the process. They totally understood what happened. It wasn't all about numbers. It's my work and now we've got to go about the process of changing the mentality of the team." = St. Pete Times
I could go on about Derrick Brooks and Warrick Dunn giving their all on the field, but i won't. This will be the last post I do on Michael Clayton and anything related to him prior to the season starting. At this point I'm sick of hearing the excuses. I'm sick of hearing him talk about this and that, prove it on the damn field. Enough is enough.