Samuel and a lack of class

I've been debating whether or not to address this for some time...until I read the following by Don Banks at Sports Illustrated, "Moss last week traveled with his new teammates to New Orleans for the wake of Patriots defensive lineman Marquise Hill -- who drowned May 27 after his jet ski flipped in Lake Pontchartrain -- a player he had barely met."

Reports in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald noted Samuel's absence from the funeral. I wasn't thrilled about it at the time, as Samuel had been Hill's teammate on the defensive side of the ball for Hill's entire professional career.

Samuel has repeatedly claimed to understand that the NFL is a business, but it seems to me, when a person spurns a teammate's funeral during a contract dispute, then the dispute is moved into the personal. Maybe he had a family emergency...maybe. Or maybe he wanted to avoid having to face the Patriot front office which attended.

Either way, I think he needs to explain his absence. That event wasn't about team. It was about our connection to each other as individuals - and right now I'm seeing someone for whom money is king over all else. I don't know if that's a teammate I would want back.