Smoke Signals: Rock Cartwright needs to get over it edition

[roth74va]

"I talked to Rock today, and the first thing I told him was, 'No question, your major contribution is special teams. No doubt about that,'" Smith said. "You're a special-teams player. So if we go three active on Sunday, then it'll be Clinton, Ladell and Rock. So I told Rock he's really No. 3, because on game day we only have three.

"But let's say something happens to Clinton or Ladell. If they get hurt and can't play, Mason would come into that spot. It wouldn't be, all of a sudden, Rock is No. 2 and Mason is No. 3. That's just the way we explained it to him. But Rock is going to be active every week."

After speaking with Smith, Cartwright seemed to accept the situation. "I have to look at it like, 'What butters my bread?' And that's special teams," Cartwright said. "I'm satisfied with my role. I'm satisfied with having a job. I'm perfectly happy. I'm a special-teams guy and I'm here for the team."

Now thats more like it, I think he just got caught up in the heat of the moment. All of these guys are competitors, so I understand his frustration.