Notebook: Woodson Extends His Stay In Green Bay

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Another article to follow about Chuck

When cornerback Charles Woodson signed a contract with the Packers as an unrestricted free agent four years ago, he did so reluctantly.

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But he really had no choice, because Green Bay was the only team that wanted him, even if he didn’t necessarily want to be in Green Bay.


Now, however, after two playoff appearances, a new defense, and a Defensive Player of the Year award, Woodson has no desire to leave, and by signing a contract extension on Thursday he stated his “mission at this point is to retire” as a Packer.


“It took a while, but once I came around, I came around hard,” Woodson told reporters moments after signing the extension following practice. He confirmed that the deal extends his original seven-year contract with the Packers for two more years, through 2014.


“It was a gradual thing, probably the more people that I met around here in the community and throughout Wisconsin, and just playing here. Playing here with the guys that we have, the organization, the way they are with the players, the way they take care of the players.


“Once I realized what I had, being here in Green Bay, then it was a done deal for me.”
Woodson is coming off his best season in 2009, when he tied for the league lead in interceptions with nine, returned three of them for touchdowns, led the team with four forced fumbles, and joined Hall of Fame defensive end Reggie White as the only Packers to be named The Associated Press’ NFL Defensive Player of the Year.


He accomplished all of this in the first year of defensive coordinator Dom Capers’ 3-4 scheme, the first time in Woodson’s pro career (which began in 1998 with Oakland) that he played in a 3-4. He appreciates the opportunities Capers gives him to make impact plays from all over the field – as a corner, in the slot, or at safety.


The way he is used, combined with the fact that the Packers are a playoff contender with designs on making a Super Bowl run, led Woodson and his agent to ask about an extension following last season.


“We’ve got it here,” Woodson said of the team’s chances to go all the way. “We’ve got the players here to get it done, we’ve got the coaching staff to get it done. It’s all going to rest on our shoulders, the players to go out there and get it done. I absolutely believe that our mission as a team is to get there, and I think we can do it.”


If the Packers do, Woodson will certainly be a big part of it. Soft-spoken by nature but very demonstrative in the heat of battle, Woodson is highly respected both on the field and in the locker room by his teammates. One could argue he’s the most indispensible player on the entire defense, because no one else could come close to replicating his all-around impact.


“A great leader, mentor,” safety and fellow Pro Bowler Nick Collins
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said. “He’s been around the game a long time, and just his knowledge of the game, it helps you play a little faster and understand what’s going on because he’s always communicating, letting you know what he’s going to do. He’s like a big brother to all of us.”


Playing as well as he did last year in his 12th season begs the question how much longer Woodson can keep it up. Head Coach Mike McCarthy said Woodson came into training camp this year in the best shape he’s ever seen him, so it’s clear the veteran has no intention of resting on his most recent achievements.


“He has been an outstanding football player for us since Day 1,” McCarthy said. “I think the new defense really highlights his skills and his abilities.


“He is instinctive and tough as they come, so I don’t see any drop-off at all.”
Woodson doesn’t see himself ever putting on a different uniform again, either. He said he hopes to play out his contract, which would take him to age 38.


“It’s been a great ride for me and hopefully we can bring a championship here,” Woodson said. “Like I say, this will be hopefully my last team.”
 

longtimefan

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This is a nice one about how he came to like GB..I bolded one part cuz there has been things said about TT that I think Chucky puts to rest.



540 ESPN Milwaukee


GREEN BAY – Charles Woodson has told the story over and over and over again.

How he never wanted to play in Green Bay. How it stung him that the Packers were the only team that really wanted him in free agency during the winter of 2006. How bad his attitude was and how he butted heads with then-rookie head coach Mike McCarthy that first year. And how, bit by bit, his feelings about the NFL’s tiniest outpost changed, how the place grew on him and became home to him.

“It’s been a long journey. Not only being here, in Green Bay, but just a long career that started in Oakland,” the Packers 33-year-old cornerback said Thursday after signing a two-year extension – while having three years left on his existing deal – that will keep him in Green Bay through 2014, when he turns 38. “The mission at this point is to retire here. It’s a big deal.”

Woodson, whose original contract with the Packers was a seven-year, $39 million deal that maxed out at $52 million, was scheduled to make a combined $21 million in 2010, ’11 and ’12. Now, he’ll reportedly make $33 million over that span, and would make a total of $55 million over the next five years.

But what’s more remarkable than the change in Woodson’s attitude toward Green Bay is the way Woodson has changed himself.

His renaissance on the field has been obvious. He has resurrected himself as one of the game’s greatest defensive players after his once-promising eight-year career in Oakland disintegrated, earning the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year award last season, when he had nine interceptions (tied for most in the NFL), a career-high 81 tackles (61 solo), two sacks, 21 pass breakups, four forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and three defensive touchdowns.

But it’s been off the field where he has changed most, going from a lifestyle of hard-partying and heavy-drinking to being a husband, father and philanthropist.

In Oakland, Woodson now admits, he would go out drinking, stay out all night, then show up for meetings and practice the next day without having slept. In December 2004, he was arrested along with ex-Packers safety Marques Anderson, then his Raiders teammate, for public intoxication when the two men wouldn’t get out of the back seat of a woman’s car at 4 o’clock in the morning.

“That guy back then was just young, man,” Woodson said Thursday. “I enjoyed life – all the time. I got myself into some situations where I was out too late, doing whatever, making bad decisions.”

It was that lifestyle that made Woodson untouchable to most NFL teams in free agency, more so than the injuries he suffered toward the end of his time in Oakland.

“For what he was early in his career, his performance wasn’t what you expect from someone in his prime. He looked like a declining player,” an AFC executive told Yahoo! Sports in January. “When he was a free agent, you were evaluating other factors as well. And he wasn’t a guy who was going to be good for your program. He had an attitude problem. He had other problems. It wasn’t a secret.”

Packers coach Mike McCarthy admits that he and Woodson had “a rough start” in 2006, but McCarthy has also watched Woodson’s transformation from a front-row seat. Seeing him thrive in defensive coordinator Dom Capers’ 3-4 scheme has been one thing; seeing him become a better man has been all the more impressive.

“Year 1 (with him) was different than Year 5,” McCarthy said. “He has really grown in the community. I know he likes it here. It has been neat to watch him go through some exciting things in his personal life, but he has been an outstanding football player for us since Day 1.

“I know we don’t have (season-long) team captains, but he is very well-respected in the locker room and has done a great job for the Green Bay Packers.”

Woodson said talks on an extension began “a while back,” long before New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis’ four-year, $46 million deal. An NFL source said talks began in June.

“I expressed to my agent, ‘This is where I want to be, let’s see if we can put something together and try to put a deal together to end it here,’” Woodson said. “So that’s what we did.”

Asked if there was a moment when his attitude toward Green Bay and playing for the Packers changed, Woodson replied, “It took a while. But once I came around, I came around hard

“It was a gradual thing, the more people that I met around here in the community and just throughout Wisconsin, and just playing here with the guys that we have and the organization and the way they take care of their players. Once I realized what I had here in Green Bay, then it was a done deal from there.”

Now, Woodson, who turns 34 on Oct. 7, credits his wife April and son Charles Jr. – the couple’s second son is due in November – and his move to Green Bay for helping him leave his Oakland ways behind him. When he first signed with the Packers in 2006, he skipped the entire offseason program, vacationing in Europe during organized team activity practices; this past offseason, he stayed in Green Bay throughout, attending OTAs even though he wasn’t practicing. He could often be found with April and Charles Jr. at the Bay Park Square Mall, just down Oneida Street from Lambeau Field.

“That’s good, clean fun,” Woodson said with a laugh. “In Oakland, I was into other forms of fun, you know? Being here, (and it) not being in a big city, where there’s always something going on that you can be into, that takes part in it. But being married, having a son, going home after work ... If I was in Oakland, (expletive), who knows where I’d go after work? It might not be home.

“When I signed the deal here, I don’t know if I even really thought past three years. Maybe. I don’t know. Never to the point where I was going to be signing an extension here in Green Bay. When I first got here, I figured I’d be here maybe a couple years, then I’d be somewhere else.

“But life takes you down some different roads sometimes, roads that you can’t explain. And this has turned out to be a great road.”
 

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