Jets fine Bker $3k - for missing treatment session!

[HughC]

The Jets and TE Chris Baker continued their little hissy fit today.

Baker, who boycotted voluntary workouts during the offseason because he's unhappy with his contract, showed up for minicamp and "tweaked something" in his back during warmups on the second day. He spent the day (two practices) riding a stationary bike, fueling speculation he feigned the injury to send a message to the Jets. Clearly, coach Eric Mangini wasn't happy.

Baker claims that he was promised that his contract would be re-worked at the end of last season.

Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum replied that there is a "difference of opinion" about those conversations.

Tannenbaum said the Jets deal with each situation on a case-by-case basis, that Baker is under contract for this year and "I'll just leave it at that."

Actually, Tannenbaum had plenty to say when asked if the Jets -- considering such complaints in consecutive offseasons by Kendall and now Baker -- are building a reputation for lying to their players and agents about future deals.

"I've been fortunate enough to do this since 1997," Tannenbaum said. "I'm really comfortable with my track record, my reputation in the agent community, looking at grievances and holdouts over a long period of time. Right now we have 85 players here; I think 84 feel reasonably satisfied where they are with their contracts."

Ouch.

Considering that this is the second straight year that accusation of promises regarding contracts have been broken - remember Pete Kendall last year - and the amount of money the Jets threw around to players like Damien Woody in the off season, Tannenbaum and Mangini would be better off by just working it out with Baker than taking this hard azz stance, in my opinion.