Kubiak disputes media accounts that Davis may be cut
The Houston Texans have been posting lots of quotes on their website after practice each day.
Here is an interesting quote from Texans coach Gary Kubiak on running back Domanick Davis during Tuesday's session:
“The idea of cutting Domanick has not even played a factor. I don’t know where that came from. The decision is strictly if his knee is going to be healthy enough to play. If his knee is not healthy enough to play, if that is the decision that’s made about him, then he’s looking at an I.R. (injury reserve) season. If he is going to be able to make it back, then he is going to be on this football team. The other choice (cutting Davis) has never been a factor. Domanick Davis is a big part of this football team as I’ve said all along we’re going to do what’s right for him.”
The idea seems to have come from John McClain and a Houston Chronicle headline writer Tuesday morning:
Texans' Davis in danger of being cut: If season started today, Lundy would be No. 1 on depth chart
While John McClain did not emphasise the possibility that Davis might be cut, he did include it in the story's reporting:
The Texans will have several options. They can make Davis, 25, part of the final roster and wait for him to get healthy. They can place him on waivers. They can put him on injured reserve, which means he wouldn't play this season. They also could trade him, which is unlikely because he's damaged goods.
McClain changed the reporting somewhat in the story that appeared today, AFTER Kubiak's quotes to the media yesterday:
When making their decision on Davis, the team's career rushing leader, the Texans have three options. They can keep Davis, 5-9 and 227 pounds, on the roster and hope he returns soon enough to help them. They can place him on injured reserve, which means he won't be available this season. Or they could place him on waivers.
Kubiak said after practice Tuesday that if Davis is unable to play, injured reserve is the most likely option.
"Domanick is a big part of this team, as I've said all along, but if his knee isn't healthy enough for him to play, then he's looking at injured reserve," Kubiak said. "I don't know what's going to happen. We've got to sit down as a group to discuss the situation."
Now why in the world didn't McClain include that other quote, in which Kubiak stresses that Davis will either be on the roster or injured reserve, and he can't imagine where anybody picked up the idea that Davis might be cut? Maybe because it makes it look as though the veteran NFL writer didn't ask the questions of the Texans staff that he should have before writing the story that appeared on Monday?
UPDATE (2006-08-31): ESPN.com runs a story that debunks the notion that the Texans were considering dumping Davis. Furthermore, Davis' agent points out that cutting him really is not an option for the team, since he is injured. At the very least, the team would have to come up with some sort of injury settlement, it would seem.
UPDATE 2 (2006-09-01): The General writes that some unnamed Texan told him that Davis might be cut:
This week, I wrote that he could be cut because that was what I had been told, without naming who told me. A day later, they'd changed their tune.
Whatever. The problem with this storyline is that a day later, McClain was still writing that Davis might be placed on waivers, despite Kubiak's denial and despite Kubiak's wondering out loud where people came up with the idea he would cut Davis. This reporting seems to have suffered from lazy/nonexistent vetting, no matter how much McClain wants to spin it after the fact.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/30/06 10:11 PM | Print | Comments (2)
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