Dallas Cowboys 'Toxic Fans': No Randy Gregory Revenge at Broncos
DENVER - Randy Gregory has put the Dallas Cowboys behind him - contractually, if not emotionally.
Gregory, back in March, sent a message to Cowboys Nation, responding to pokes on Twitter by writing that the Cowboys have “a toxic fan base that believe I owe them something. LOL.”
Earlier this offseason, just moments after the Cowboys announced they had agreed to terms on a new five-year deal with the defensive end, Gregory (and his agent) has a changing of the mind, spurning Dallas to instead agree to a five-year, $70 million deal with Denver.
"This is a week I'll never forget,'' Gregory wrote on IG shortly thereafter while at dinner at Elway's Steakhouse in Denver. "(I) appreciate the Broncos organization for believing in me.''
"Belief.'' Trust. Gregory feels he got that in Denver's offer ... and not in Dallas'.
Gregory's agent, Peter Schaffer, alleges the Cowboys - who had on the table the same dollars and years in their deal as the Broncos did - inserted language into the proposal that his side found offensive.
The language concerns the possibility of forfeiture of guaranteed money in the event of fines or suspensions by the NFL related to the league's Policy and Program on Substances of Abuse, an area in which Gregory has a history of trouble. He's battled back from his issues and in 2021 recorded six sacks while showing signs of dominance.
But the fact is, Gregory has missed more than 50 games due to suspension and has yet to play a full season. So the clause is in his contract - as it is, as a standard operating procedure in most Cowboys contracts.
Schaffer has insisted he's never in "30 years in this business'' seen such a clause. But in fact, again, it is standard in Dallas deals ... including the last guaranteed-money deal Gregory himself signed with the Cowboys.
Nevertheless, a feeling of distrust resulted. Should the Cowboys have deleted or softened the wording? Should Schaffer have either better-understood himself or better-explained to Gregory the wording?
It doesn't matter now. Gregory "trusts'' the Denver Broncos, even as he is sidelined after rotator cuff surgery and will be reduced to being a spectator in Saturday's preseason-opening Dallas-at-Broncos game here in Denver ... just as he was a spectator for the Thursday joint practice, not counting all the yapping he did at his former "friends'' in ways that seemed to contribute to the six brawls that marred the workout.
The Cowboys hope they can rush the passer without Gregory.
Gregory believes the Broncos "trust'' him.
And he thinks the Cowboys fans who followed him for a half-decade are … toxic.
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