Two weeks ago, around a month after he originally met with the Cowboys to discuss his future with the team, right tackle Doug Free opted to take a dramatic pay cut rather than risk being released. Over that month or so of silence, Free now says, he truly wasn’t sure what was going to happen between he and Dallas.
"I really had no clue what was going to happen the whole time," Free told the team’s official website. "I kept it wide open. You never really know what's going to happen. I kept the options open and realized I can't control everything."
Set to play the 2013 season at half of what he was originally supposed to earn--his reworked deal gives him a base salary of $3.5 million, while the original number was $7 million--Free will be competing with Jermey Parnell, with whom he platooned down the stretch of 2012, for snaps.
“Any time you’re competing against a guy, you’re going to either step it up to the next level or fade away,” Free said. “Just every day, I’m going to come out and do my best and try to stay positive about the whole deal. Anything I can help Jermey with, being an older guy, I’m going to try and help him. Anything I can do to make the team better is what I’m here for.”
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