Ex-Coug Eaton Cut By Cards

It was a bad day for former Washington State Cougars in NFL training camps Monday. Three of them were let go.

Eight days before the NFL’s first mandatory cutdown, the Arizona Cardinals cut seven players, including defensive tackle Chad Eaton, a seventh-round pick from WSU.

Philadelphia released tight end Clarence Williams and running back Shaumbe Wright-Fair.

Eaton, a third-team Associated Press All-American last fall after being proclaimed the top defensive lineman in the Pacific-10 Conference, said he didn’t want to burn any bridges, but several were smoking when he left for Phoenix.

He said he thinks he received a raw deal from the team, that he and coach Buddy Ryan didn’t get along and he hopes to play against the Cards to prove them wrong.

Some of Eaton’s parting shots:

“I don’t think Buddy Ryan really likes me. I hope he does read this article, and I hope he does say something to the team like ‘that little (expletive).”’

“I kind of wish Arizona would have never drafted me. “”I think it (getting cut) stems

from more than what Chad Eaton does on the football field. I think maybe I had better quotes than Buddy did, and I think that kind of bothered him.”

Ryan said it was Eaton’s lack of playing ability, not his mouth, that got him cut.

“If he would have taken my place with you guys (the media), I would have given him a raise and kept him,” Ryan said.

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