McCarron stated that if such statement implied that he was finished playing, it should not have.
McCarron stated that his desire to “put it on them” did not apply to the St. Louis fans.
“I absolutely love the city of St. Louis,” McCarron said. “Unbelievable people. The love for football, the passion, the way they treated my family, everybody in the organization from every coach I got to deal with, I truly had an unbelievable time. The fans were unreal. Some of the best, literally, in the country. It’s sad that the NFL got taken away from them because that city, whether it’s hockey, soccer now, baseball with the Cards, it’s unbelievable passion there.”
McCarron said he was not surprised by his release, but by the timing.
“I knew we were going to part ways,” McCarron said. “It’s one of those things you could just feel at the end of last season. From a coaching style, environment, everything, it was just different, so I knew we were probably going to end up parting ways. I hadn’t heard anything, so what it came down to is I had multiple coaches that I know in the league that I have respect for, they have respect for me reach out multiple times. This was probably two months ago, a month ago: ‘Hey, word is they’re going to start gearing up to try to trade you out of St. Louis.’ And I told these coaches, ‘Well, I’m not going to be traded. I’m not going to let them decide where I go, if that’s the case. I’ll just refuse it.’ And it kind of died down. And then I had even more coaches reach back out to me about two weeks ago, and say, ‘Hey, word is it’s about to start’ as we get closer to January, when everything starts gearing up for the UFL.”
McCarron said, he received a call from Becht last week.
“He said, ‘Listen, it’s not performance-based by any means. I still think you’re the best quarterback in the league. I appreciate everything you’ve done,’” McCarron said. “And I thanked him for all the things we had as a team and all that. And he said, ‘We’re going to part ways and go a different route,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, that’s understandable.’ It’s part of the business.
“And then he said, ‘Hey, we called some teams today about trading you.’ And our GM (Dave Boller) kind of butted in, and I said, ‘Who’d you call?’ And he said, ‘We only called one team.’ And I said, ‘OK, well, you said teams.’ And he said, ‘We haven’t heard back from the team we called.’ And I said, ‘If you’re trying to trade me, I’m just going to deny it and refuse the trade.’ And he said, ‘What do you mean? Are you done playing? Hanging them up?’ And I said, ‘No. I’m 34. My body feels great.’ Hell, before I had that high-ankle sprain last year I felt like I was playing the best ball, moving, everything the best I had done in years. He said, ‘Well, we own your rights forever as long as you want to play in the UFL.’ And I said, ‘No you don’t.’ My contract ended in August. … I said, ‘You only have my rights until January or February.’ It’s sometime in that timeframe. And I said, ‘I’ll just wait till my rights run out, and then I’ll choose to sign with a team if I want to sign with somebody else. But I’m not going to allow you to trade me. Since we’re not on the same team anymore, I’m not in the business of helping you out … because I know if you trade me, you’re going to get multiple – at least two – good players from the other team, and I don’t want to hurt my new team as well. And if I want to play, I want to be able to choose.’”
McCarron claimed the Battlehawks told him they wanted to make a joint announcement regarding his leaving, but that did not happen.
“(Becht) said, ‘Hey, well, I want to send you out the right way,’” McCarron said. “‘We’re going to make a post eventually. It’ll be some time, and we’ll get back in touch with you so it will allow you to make a post with us and get it out there and show your appreciation for the city and all that.’ We hang up. I thought everything was great. I’m like, ‘Well, at least they’re giving me that opportunity to make a statement with the team’ – an organization I’d also sacrificed a ton for and tried to bring a love and a good product on the field and played through a lot of injuries. I don’t need to talk about them, but Becht knows what I played through and especially that injury last year, when he asked me to play because I wasn’t going to play. I’d even talked to him about, ‘Hey, I’m done from playing this year. I’m just going to go back home and get this surgery and get rehab early.’ So I stuck it out.
“But we come home after school two days later or a day later – I think it was maybe two – and we’re upstairs and Tripp comes to me and says, ‘Dad, are you done playing with the Battlehawks?’ And I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘They said they released you.’ And so that’s how I found out. I saw a post. I was not called, I was not warned, was not given an opportunity to put out a post with team and the organization like I was told. And so I read it. I think the part that really pissed me off more than anything was not giving me my due to put something out with the team and the organization and do it the right way. And kind of just make what I thought was kind of a half-ass post and to have AB’s quote in there and not have a quote from me thanking the city and everything, I felt like was (expletive) on his part.”
