Dajesus
OK Da, since you want to dive in on this one too here's the deal. Carter said- these are his very own words paraphrased- that he wanted a ring more than anything else and would not consider playing for a team that wasn't a SB contender. That meant that St. Louis was a logical choice and the Browns should not have even been a blip on his radar screen.
You hit the nail on the head when you said something was more important to his ego than playing a third WR role. You see, you're making my point for me, it's his ego that's the problem. He, rightfully so, has a lot of confidence in his abilities and loves to make that known but he also seems to have the opinion that if everyone does not do exactly what he thinks they should then they are worthy of a good public tounge lashing. I'm all for the verbal abuse in cases where it's warranted (like Moss) but for him to deride so many of his teamates and the coaching staff is simply wrong.
If you'll remember, Zach went after the whole team after the first loss to the Jets so a lot of people like to point this out and say "Zach did it, Carter does it, same thing right?" Wrong. Two very distinct things that ZT did that seperate his rant from Carters: 1) He didn't single out any single player or unit (offense, defense, etc) he made it known that this was a team problem; 2) ZT limited his comments to the players and left the coaching staff out of it. These are very important factors in that the way ZT approached things were based upon a team mentality, as opposed to Carter who seems to have a divide and conquer attitude ("a house divided against itself cannot stand." -maybe you know the quoute.)
Next, and this has been widely reported so there's no conjecture here, Carter was not only meeting with the coaching staff, he was meeting with the team leaders in players. The reason behind this was that a couple of the guys, Faulk and Bruce in particular had some serious questions abou the way Carter handles himself both on the field and in the locker room. The point of this meeting wasn't to show respect, it was to see if some of these issues could be resolved in order for Carter to be brought on board.
As far as anyone in St. Louis being concerned with how Carter would feel playing as the 3rd WR I think that's ridiculous considering he publicly came out and said that he would be just fine playing #3 if St. Louis signed him. Unless he was just talking out of his butt again, this should not have even been a concern for either the Rams or for Carter.
Also, I have a very hard time buying the home town line since he had never expressed any interest in playing there until he thought they were going to be offering the big bucks. He had three teams he wanted to go to: St. Louis, Philly, and Miami; all playoff teams and all considered contenders next year.
Finally, there is a reason I posted the name of my source and posted it the way I did. Wong was a respected leader of the defense and what he sais does carry some weight with me. I also included how I got the information so I wasn't misleading anyone by saying that I know the guy personally. Also, I'm not saying that because he said these thigs were so, they are. What I am saying is that with all the other data that's out there, the information that I've been given completely jives so it was worth reporting.
Finally, If the 'Fins do get Carter I will hope he does nothing but good things for the team and is the model citizen and team player. But, even if he does go to Miami, and he is the poster boy for great leadership, it doesn't change how he's behaved in the past which is why there are so many of us on this MB who honestly believe that he is a cancer and will cause more harm than good.
P.S. You are wrong, Wong wasn't the guy that Carter pushed (another great example of how belligerant and obnoxious he can be. Offensive guys need to stick to slamming their own guys.) I'm pretty sure the guy he pushed was a DE so you can quit throwing the dog groomer's mother's, whatever, crap insults around, they're not necessary.
