GREEN BAY, Wis. | If linebacker Nick Barnett and tight end Jermichael Finley couldn’t play for the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl, they at least wanted to be included in the team photo.
Both players posted complaints on their Twitter accounts Tuesday after finding out players on injured reserve will not be in the team picture taken at the Super Bowl.
Barnett called it “sad,” and Finley said it was “not cool.”
“It was a team decision,” Packers spokesman Jeff Blumb said. “It was based primarily on the sheer number of players we have on injured reserve. Our primary goal in Dallas is to get the team ready to win a game.”
Green Bay now lists 16 players on IR. Injured players will join the team in the Dallas area late next week and will be on the sideline during the Feb. 6 game against Pittsburgh.
“They will be in our bench area on game day and part of our team,” Blumb said.
Both players softened their criticism later in the day.
“I was not trying to be a distraction nor was I downing the organization they have done so much for me,” Barnett wrote Tuesday afternoon.
Another potential concern for the injured players is the team photo takes place during Tuesday’s media day, and the Packers’ injured players aren’t scheduled to join the team until Thursday. If the team were to bring injured players to the Dallas area earlier in the week, the players would end up missing nearly a week of their injury rehabilitation.
“This next two weeks is about the unbelievable success of my teammates and last thing I want is to be (is a) distraction,” Finley wrote.
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