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Cobbs on NFL "slavery," free agency, lockout

Like most NFL players, Patrick Cobbs is spending some time on the golf course, some time in workout sessions, and most of his time waiting for the NFL lockout and current labor strife to be resolved.

Cobbs is expected to be a free agent when the labor agreement is settled, as the Dolphins did not sign him to a contract extension. "I'm nobody's running back," he said during an appearance Tuesday on my radio show, Armando and the Amigo.

And while free agency, by definition, will grant Cobbs the freedom to go to any NFL team that wants him, the running back can understand how fellow running back Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings could paint his situation as a player as "like modern-day slavery."

"I wouldn't say slave. But we are at the mercy of [owners]," Cobbs said. "This league is a great league or we wouldn't be playing in it. Obviously, we all love to play the game. But I think at times we are slaves. They tell us to jump and we jump. Most of the time we ask them how high. We bend over backwards, we give up our bodies every day to do what we love and also what they pay us to do. So we should do it whenever they tell us to do it. I mean, yeah, I can see where [Peterson] is coming from. So that's like slaves. But we're not slaves because we get paid pretty well to do it."

Cobbs made a distinction between himself, because he is seldom used to carry the ball, and Peterson, who is Minnesota's primary ballcarrier: "The way he runs the ball. he's getting paid to run into a wall every play. I can see where he's coming from."

That doesn't mean Cobbs wouldn't welcome more work with whichever team he plays for next. 

"I had a role this year," Cobbs said. "It wasn't as big a role as I had in 2008. Did I show it? Anything they asked me to do, I was always trying to do best I could. I feel like I could do more. I wanted to do more and hopefully I'll get to showcase that next year."

Having said that, Cobbs said he understood he was behind both Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown and they needed to get the ball.

 Cobbs was a team leader for the Dolphins in 2010. He was voted special teams captain. So was he surprised the team didn't re-sign him?

"Yeah, a little surprised," he said, "but it's a business and they have the right to do that ... If they don't sign me back, I'll have to find somewhere else to call home.

"I'm working out. I'm doing the things I would be doing normally. I don't have a team right now so if a team were to call me in [after the lockout] I'm doing the things necessary to be in the best shape I can be in. Hopefully that's tomorrow. Right now, I'm doing the things I need to be in the best shape in my life and go from there."

As an NFL player, Cobbs understands why he's not working right now. But he isn't a drone follower of the union line that says all NFL players are underpaid and underappreciated by ownership. In fact, Cobb thinks some players are underpaid, while others, not so much.

"I think the majority of this league is underpaid," Cobbs said. "I don't think everybody is underpaid. I think there are guys that get paid more than they should and there are a bunch of guys that get paid much less than they should."

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