Eric Decker Says He Skipped OTAs To Go To The CMT Awards With His Wife Because It Was "Payback For Child Birth"
NY Post – Eric Decker’s wife gave him a baby, so the veteran wide receiver returned the favor by skipping Jets camp for the CMT Awards. That was Decker’s explanation Wednesday for his decision last week to miss two days of voluntary on-field practice with his new team so he could accompany singing wife Jessie James to present on national TV at the country music awards show in Nashville. Decker did so with the blessing of Jets coach Rex Ryan and the team, but the former Bronco’s justification for the trip — payback for childbirth — still came off as a bit of a stretch. “When your wife gives birth and goes through nine months of tough days to give you a child, you respect the woman a lot more,” Decker said, referring to the March birth of daughter Vivianne Rose. “Obviously, she’s very important to me and her career is very important to me as well.” Decker, whose five-year, $36.25 million contract from the Jets was the largest given out to a receiver in free agency, also stars in an E! Network reality series with his wife, but said he didn’t understand the minor fuss his absence created. “A marriage is give and take,” Decker said. “Any relationship is give and take. It’s funny how this became such a story. It was an opportunity to get down there [to Nashville] and be around our friends and be around the music industry that she’s a part of.” “If there was an issue … obviously, I talked with Coach Ryan and let him know this was something that’s important, not only for me, but for my wife,” Decker said. “If he had an issue with it, we would have discussed it and figured out a solution at that point.” Decker offered no apologies and said the Jets could trust him to do the right thing. “There’s priorities in life,” Decker said. “There’s a lot of respect within this organization and within this building, and we know what’s right.”
Look I’m a huge advocate of “happy wife happy life.” And I also believe that athletes should get to have real lives and don’t need to be consumed by their sport 24/7/365. The guy missed an OTA, not a game.
But that being said Eric Decker is fucked in New York if he keeps this up. He’s a great looking guy with a very public, outspoken, pretty sexy wife and a reality TV show. He’s got a bullseye on him from the jump with the media. Like I said, skipping an OTA isn’t the end of the world, but in this town, quotes like this become a big deal. You can get away with that shit in Denver but here, thats gonna be tabloid material and sports talk material and blog material and you’re gonna become a distraction. Nobody really cares yet because they haven’t seen him play but I’m telling you the media is gonna be a headache for this dude.
PS – Eric you don’t owe your wife shit bro. You know what your payback is for her giving birth? You. The fact that she gets to fuck you. You’re like the best looking dude on earth and you’ve got a 36 million dollar contract. You graced her with monogamy. She could give you like 9 kids and she’d still be playing catch up in the payback department.