Gonzalez posts ‘SHOULD'VE BEEN DONE BY NOW' lyrics amid contract standoff

Tom Curran joins Mike Felger and Michael Holley to react to Christian Gonzalez's Instagram post with the song lyrics "should've been done by now".

Gonzalez posts 'SHOULD'VE BEEN DONE BY NOW' lyrics amid contract standoff originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

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Christian Gonzalez did not participate in joint practice today after he might have gotten dinged up at the end of yesterday's practice.

Gonzalez, of course, is also seeking a new deal.

Greg Bedard reported that he was told the injury was what kept Gonzalez out.

Meanwhile, here's Phil Perry tonight on Early Edition.

I have no reason not to believe what Greg's reporting there, and so if he's dealing with something, he's dealing with something.

And, why push it in a joint practice against, what on the outside at least for Indianapolis, are backup receivers.

Probably not gonna play in the Thursday game anyway.

Maybe just take the rest of the week off.

But it also could be, Andy, I would think, a little bit of a reminder as to the risk he is incurring every day by showing up and practicing the way he has, and going all out the way he has.

The effort has been tremendous.

The performance has been, top-notch, quite frankly.

But I wonder if something like this pops up.

Again, and even if it's minor, I know he's a football player.

Football players play football.

They're all tough guys, but it might just be a little reminder in the back of his mind saying, "You know what?

Why push it when you haven't gotten that $100 million guaranteed just yet?"

Okay, so was it injury?

Was it contract?

Well, maybe Christian Gonzalez answered it for us, as the kids tend to do on the internet- Yeah with a post.

Here's the aforementioned Time Reveals by Gunna.

Lot of different A- actually, there were more than this lyric he could have used to get his point across, but it's the very first lines in the song.

"Should have been done by now, but you didn't know how to handle the feeling.

Should have been done by now, but you better go your way, go your way."

Now, I, I, I, you know, again, who knows?

The song felt to me like he was singing to a, a, a woman or a love- Yeah a love interest.

But you, you know.

But it could also apply here, Michael.

Yeah.

All right?

You know.

Yeah, you know, you have to suspend, some of the rules.

Like, like great literature- you have to just, really take some creative liberties here because there's a next line.

He says, "I'm starting to cut these" bleeps "off.

I'm tired of playing."

Look, th- this is, no matter how you feel about, social media, and, oh, it should be a little bit more direct than that, it's not.

This is the world we live in now.

It's how they communicate.

This is how they communicate.

Christian Gonzalez could have said, "Hey, we'll take it day by day, and I look forward to being out there with my teammates."

He could have said nothing.

Instead, he chose to post this.

He chose to post it with this song.

It was thoughtful on his part.

I think he's disappointed, Mike.

It's, it's pretty simple.

He's disappointed that the contract is not done right now.

I don't know if he had assurances that it would be done by the time the Indianapolis Colts got to town.

I don't know if he was assured that it would be done by August 1st.

Whatever, I think we've reached a different stage in the Gonzalez-Patriots relationship.

Yes, and it's what I feared, Mike.

You know?

I, I feared that they weren't close.

Robert Kraft, when he came out and said, "We offered him the biggest contract for his position," was really a bad sign, not a good sign.

I've been surprised that he's been out there to this point.

Yeah.

But I always felt that we were You know, I always feared that we were headed to this, which is he's in camp, he's with the team, and this is just the way it's gonna be all year, where he's making business decisions.

He's banged up, so he's not pushing it.

A guy we're gonna talk about coming up, Sauce Gardner, was in the exact same spot, and made business decision after business decision.

Ended up having a bad year, still signed, got traded, and that sort of thing, where he's with the team.

He's out there-ish, and we just sort of lose a season of Christian Gonzalez, and I think that's my fear.

It's been my fear from the start, and this is the first little sign that maybe that's coming.

All right.

Let, let's, let's play along.

You know, taking g- going, let's go beyond Gunna.

All right?

Let's play along.

Something changed.

What changed beyond, the tweak in practice?

Because if, if we take his actions and his, his, and what we see from Christian Gonzalez, it's, it seems as if something was expected.

He expected something now.

Yeah.

'Cause he wasn't like this.

He wasn't ma- You, you mention business decisions.

He wasn't making business decisions last week.

This is what Phil Perry said.

He's been going out there.

He's been practicing.

Been practicing well, been practicing hard.

What changed today?

What was it?

W- was it some kind of promise?

Was there some kind of interaction where this whole thing went left?

That's what I wonder.

Okay, so like, you know, one thing is the joint practices, where the level of physicality ramps up, and you're putting yourself at a little more risk.

It's a precursor also to the, to, you know, the first preseason game.

And so this was a line of demarcation.

I'll, I'll A- and again, I'm just sort of guessing.

Right.

Right.

I'll, I'll practice against my teammates.

I'll practice with my coaches, but when we start doing these next things, that's gonna be a line of demarcation for me.

And maybe that was, you know, they told him, "By the time we get to the preseason games, this thing's gonna be done," and it just wasn't.

It also makes me rethink, and this was brought up on the radio, I think it's a fair thing, the Hunter Henry contract.

And not that, you know, they gave him any of Christian Gonzalez's money.

Those are two separate, you know, kettles of fish right there.

But could it have been just a little, tiny little bit of a smokescreen by the Patriots to throw out there?

You know, when anyone says, "See?

They don't pay their players.

See?

They're being cheap," for the Patriots to have just a headline or two out there, oh, they extended and have paid their tight end, Hunter Henry.

And was the timing not a coincidence?

It was just a little bit of a PR smoke out there to sort of d- you know, deflect from what was coming with Christian Gonzalez.

I wonder.

I guess, I guess maybe, but if you wanna pay somebody, i- if you're an NFL team that doesn't really wanna spend money, but wants a headline, you pay a tight end , you pay a kicker, you pay a full , a fullback, a safety.

So it's not really That's not the real money.

So I mean, I guess.

I don't know if anybody would fall for it.

If they thought that, if they do think that way, that would be disappointing because it really has nothing to do with what- Christian Gonzalez is looking for All right, so what are we headed for here?

Notable cornerback deals and trades recently.

Now, look, we all know that Chris Gonzalez is gonna get his money, just like all these corners have gotten their money, but where do they get it?

When do they get it?

And how does it end with their team?

Like, like I said, Sauce Gardner, he got his money, then he got dealt.

Trent McDuffie got his money after he was dealt.

He played through that fourth year.

Didn't follow it sup, I can't tell you exactly what kind of year he had.

Gardner's last year with the Jets was not good, and McDuffie gets traded and then gets his money.

So any concern, Tommy Kearney, Curran joining us here in the studio, that this is where we're headed with Christian Gonzalez?

I would say that's not what the Patriots preference is when you look at those two teams.

D- well, take the Chiefs out of it.

The Jets were in a rebuild.

They had an opportunity to get collateral back in terms of draft picks, a lot of them.

So I don't think the Patriots are in a position right now where they're looking at a team that is not stacked with depth of moving away from a top-tier corner and just sending the message that we're, we're not trying to get necessarily as good as we can at every position.

Just on you guys are wondering why or what changed, I think Mike's definitely on the right track.

You're having a bunch of guys come in who don't have their own team They have their own team's interests at heart, and not necessarily Christian Gonzalez.

So if they go hard on him, he gets rolled up on, why would he be out there?

I'm looking towards this weekend to see if he's back out there when there are practices this weekend.

It's the Patriots just on the field.

So that's one thing, and also use your words, Christian.

Just, just use your words.

If, if you wanna state something, go ahead and state it.

I don't care if that's how it's done, and that's what we do, the cryptic stuff.

Just use your words.

You know, and it is, he made a very good point, I thought, about we're gonna keep this between- Yep my team and the team, and I'm gonna keep this out of the media, right after Robert Kraft did just the opposite.

We all thought Gonzalez was sorta handling that the right way.

I wonder if this, Mike, is sort of a departure from that.

Yeah, but you know what?

Curran, you say use your words.

I, I think, today's athlete, a lot of athletes will come back and say, "No, no, no, no.

I, I'm gonna a- you're gonna have to use your interpretive abilities 'cause I'm not gonna do that."

Well, then don't give me a sad when we get it wrong.

He, he w- I don't wanna hear your sads- Hey, you're not, hey- if you misinterpret hey, Tommy Curran, I've known you for a long time.

You're not gonna get this one wrong.

Nobody's gonna get this one wrong.

No.

No.

I mean, this is, this is right down the middle.

You see, it, it, what you see- It is is, is what you get.

Time reveals, and here it is.

Then don't run for cover the next time, and I'm not saying he's going to.

Yeah.

I think that his maturity has, has grown by leaps and bounds in the three years that he's been in the NFL in terms of talking to the media and the way he's portrayed himself.

Phil's exactly right.

He's been quite possibly the best player, he and May, throughout this camp, and he's busting his ass.

So he's done everything.

He's, he's walked the walk, he just hasn't talked that- Okay talk.

I know we don't, we don't know what's going on, so we're gonna, we're gonna do a little guessing here.

Sure.

Who do you think's at fault?

And there has been some reporting, like Mike Giardi has said this week, that Christian Gonzalez is not just looking to, you know, beat the next best deal by a little.

He's looking to beat the next best deal by a lot.

Mm-hmm.

He may not just be looking to set the market for a corner.

He may be looking to raise the entire corner market up closer to some other defensive positions.

Do we think Christian Gonzalez is asking for way too much and is being unreasonable, or are the Patriots, for lack of a better term, being the Patriots?

Here's my best understanding of what's going on.

Christian Gonzalez doesn't wanna sign a contract that in six months is gonna be obsolete.

So he's gonna ask for 2027, top of the market, I'm a free agent, pay me like a 2027 player, not a 2026 player on a $300 million salary cap.

Pay me like I'm coming up next year so that my contract isn't obsolete.

And the salary cap goes up about 30 million each year.

So if his contract in two years is under a $350 million cap, he's gonna want 36, he's gonna want 37.

Is that unreasonable?

No.

On the face of it, it's not, but if you're coming to the table this early to the Patriots, I would say to them, "Well, what are you giving back?

You know, you're coming to the table a year or two early.

You're an exceptional player.

You're busting your ass.

You're out there all the time.

Yeah, we should go ahead and do it for you."

But then you run into, with Drake May next year, well, you just paid him- as if he's a free agent in 2026.

Why don't you pay me like I'm a free agent?

So I wonder if that's the precedent.

Mike, I, fault, I don't know if I can necessarily lay it.

I can see both sides.

I can see what Gonzalez is saying, "Look, I'm gonna sign something, give you the security.

You're gonna know that I'm here, but you're gonna be getting a bargain in about six months."

And the Patriots saying, "Yeah, but that's, that's kinda h- what we have to do, 'cause if we don't do that, we're gonna be hosed down the road when Drake May says 77 million, just like he got."

You wanna know what Gunner says?

Gunner says, "I take my time.

I learn to wait."

Can't nobody rush it.

So like, like what you said, hey, maybe, maybe he's willing to wait.

Well, that's the thing about- What would, what would Gunner do?

Ian Rapoport has mentioned a couple times he's, might be willing to play, in this fourth season, which then goes back to what Mike's saying is what level of, I don't wanna say effort 'cause he's busted his ass, again, but what level of self-protection will he exhibit as the season goes along if he's playing as a guy on a $4 million contract when he knows he could be making closer to 40?

Because again, as Sauce Gardner proved, you don't have to even play great.

Nope.

You know?

You just have to sort of be healthy and be there and still have that reputation, and you're still gonna get your money.

Preservation is, sorta feels like the name of the game there

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