Center Austin Reiter in for visit

[Nicomo Cosca]

(07-25-2021, 05:32 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: Didn't his wife throw out some stuff while that was going on?

Yep. She wrote an article in some magazine about it;

As I remember, the first team to call was the Los Angeles Chargers. They made a good offer. The next was from the Bengals. It wasn’t a good offer. At all. “It’s just the first day,” Andrew’s agent, Pat Dye said. There was another offer that first day from the Los Angeles Rams. A really solid offer. We knew they wanted him.

The next morning, less than 24 hours into the free agency process, it did ramp up. Offers came in from Denver, Minnesota, the New York Jets, and another one from the Rams (an even better one). Each time, Dad would put pen to paper and make his calculations. We would all talk and weigh our options. Andrew called Pat back at dinner that night and said, “I really don’t want to go anywhere else. I want to finish my career in Cincinnati, but their offer isn’t even competitive with the others. Can you reach out to them and see if they will increase their offer?” The answer hit us like a ton of bricks… “Andrew, here’s the text I just received from Troy Blackburn (one of the Bengals’ owners),” Pat’s text read. “I wanted you to read it for yourself. I’m sorry.” “We don’t have Andrew valued at that price,” Blackburn said. “He is an aging left tackle. Our offer stands. It will not increase. If he chooses to leave Cincinnati, all good things must come to an end, I guess.”

Wow. That was it. Cincinnati didn’t “value Andrew” the way other teams seemed to. It was hurtful and felt personal. We sat in silence for a few minutes not believing what we had just read. Andrew finally broke the tension in the room and called Pat on speaker phone, “Well Pat, I’m still not sure these other offers are worth me leaving Cincinnati.” He REALLY wanted to stay. Pat said, “Let me call the Rams back. They want you badly. I’ll tell them to make an offer you can’t refuse.”