PACKERS: Hunt upset with team
00:00 am 6/07/05
Jason Wilde Wisconsin State Journal
GREEN BAY - Cletidus Hunt isn't staying away from the Green Bay Packers' organized team activity camp simply because he doesn't feel like coming.
According to center Mike Flanagan, who spoke to Hunt by phone last week, Hunt has a beef with Packers management, although Flanagan refused to divulge exactly why the veteran defensive tackle is unhappy.
"I talked to Cletidus. There's some other stuff that's going on that he has some issues with that if he wants to talk about, he'll talk about," said Flanagan, who appears to be the only person associated with the team to have spoken with Hunt since the camp began last Wednesday. "He's got a gripe; whether it's legitimate or not, whether it justifies the decision he's made not to be here, I don't know about that. But he has a gripe."
Hunt, who missed the first three days of workouts last week, did not show up when the camp reconvened Monday following a weekend break. When Hunt missed the first portion of the June camp last year, he arrived the following Monday, issued a public apology and took part in the remaining practices.
This time around, it appears Hunt will skip the entire camp, even though the team is installing a new scheme under new defensive coordinator Jim Bates. The camp is technically voluntary, but Hunt and holdout wide receiver Javon Walker are the only two unexcused absentees.
Packers general manager Ted Thompson, when informed of Flanagan's conversation with Hunt and asked why Hunt is unhappy, replied, "I don't know anything about that."
Neither Thompson nor coach Mike Sherman has spoken with Hunt, and Thompson said no one else on the Packers' coaching or personnel staffs has spoken to him, either. But Thompson said he is not concerned.
"I wish everybody was here, but I'm fine. It's a voluntary camp," Thompson said. "I think if he was here working out and going through our OTA practice sessions, I think it would be better for him, and it would make the coaches and everybody feel a little better. But things happen. We hope he comes to training camp in shape and ready to go."
Hunt did not answer his cell phone Monday, and the outgoing message on his voicemail said the mailbox was full and unable accept messages.
Nose tackle Grady Jackson, who plays alongside Hunt on the interior of the defensive line and is one of Hunt's closest friends on the team, criticized his friend for not coming to the camp.
Jackson missed the first half of the camp last week while attending to a personal matter, but he arrived Monday and observed practice, even though Sherman said he won't let Jackson practice on his surgically repaired left knee until training camp.
"He's a great player when he wants to be, and he's got a lot of ability," said Jackson, who said he has not spoken to Hunt. "With a new system (being put) in, I feel like he should be here learning the new system and so everybody's on the same page when we get to training camp.
"He's got to turn it on, because maybe the Packers can only take so much. It's time to turn it on. It's time to put up or shut up. That's how the Packers feel. But he's a grown man, and you can't tell a grown guy what to do."
Added linebacker Na'il Diggs: "Some people's priorities are not there. Some people don't care."
Asked if Hunt, who registered just 37 tackles and two sacks last season, was digging his own grave with the team, Sherman said, "I wouldn't say that. We just have to wait and see what transpires between now and (training camp)."
One possible reason for Hunt's unhappiness could be the clause in his contract which allows the Packers to reduce his base salary by $250,000 if he does not work out at the team's facility a set number of days during the offseason. Each of the past two years, Hunt has chosen to stay home in Memphis, Tenn., forfeiting $500,000. Hunt signed a six-year, $25.35 million contract (including a $6 million signing bonus) before the 2003 season.
"Cletidus is what he is. He's always been this way," Flanagan said. "You don't really get a straight answer from him (as to why he's upset). Whether it's true or not, whether it's his skewed reality, I don't know."
