On the heels of a confusing week for Bryant McKinnie, the Baltimore Ravens left tackle is ready to expend a little energy on the Cincinnati Bengals.
McKinnie agreed to restructure his contract Tuesday, mere hours after tweeting that he wasn't in Baltimore's plans any longer.
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"There was a lot of change in emotions, swinging back and forth because you thought you were gone and then they're back. I'm here now, so I can focus on the Bengals," McKinnie told The Baltimore Sun. "I was a little bit confused, but we managed to get through it, and I'm still here. It was confusing, but we were able to work it out. That's the only thing that matters really."
McKinnie settled on a base-salary reduction from $3.2 million to $2.2 million, but he told The Sun there's no hard feelings heading into the Monday night opener.
"I don't have no problem," McKinnie said. "If anything in business, you can't get too many emotions tied up in it when you know you have to deal with business at the same time. It was business on their end, it was business on our end, and we took care of it."
The contract negotiations might have been messy, but the Ravens were wise to keep McKinnie around. It's hard to find a left tackle days before the season opener, and he did an admirable job starting all 18 games for Baltimore last season. Somehow, you knew general manager Ozzie Newsome would figure out this one.
