Unless you've been living under the proverbial Dallas Cowboys fandom rock, you are well aware that today, the first day of mandatory mini-camp, saw the return of supposedly disgruntled cornerback Mike Jenkins. Jenkins was supposedly upset over the team's offseason maneuvers of signing free agent Brandon Carr and drafting first-rounder Morris Claiborne; who both happen to line up at the position he thought he was topping the depth chart of.
Supposedly Jenkins, on the last year of his rookie contract, requested to be traded soon after the draft (and after Dallas was reportedly shopping him to no offers up to their satisfaction) and he supposedly reiterated that request a few weeks ago during team OTAs.
I keep saying supposedly because according to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, he's never heard that request.
Asked if Jenkins ever requested a trade, Jones responded: "I don't really know that. I didn't hear that. I didn't talk to his agent about that. There's no need to talk about that." - SportsDayDFW
Whoa now, Jerry. Unless we are to believe that the Dallas media has now resorted to simply making up unfounded storylines; we'd have to believe that those trade requests actually happened. Although, with Jenkins freezing out the media it's not as if we'll glean any insight from him.
So that leaves the option that Jones, in typical Jerry speak, is dancing around the truth a bit.
One possibility? Stephen Jones, who is slowly moving into the power position at The Ranch, was the one that talked to Jenkins agent, giving Jerry plausible deniability (thanks eighth-grade civics teacher!). Another possiblity? Jones simply hung up the phone after the trade was requested; therefore qualifying him as 'not talking to his agent about that'. I'd wager on either of these two options over Jenkins never asking to be dealt.
Now Jenkins isn't ready to practice, as he is still rehabbing his shoulder after surgery; something he has been doing without Cowboys team doctors up until this point. Head Coach Jason Garrett announced today that the team wouldn't discuss the status of the rehab ,which could be looked at as positioning if the team believes Jenkins is slow to recover because of his contract situation.
Hey, if Jerry can say the trade request never happened, we're allowed to speculate outloud a bit.