After all of the controversy surrounding his contract, Lito Sheppard decided to be the bigger man and report to mandatory training camp. It’s so rare to see nowadays, a player that actually works through problems with the team instead of holding out. Yes, he is disgruntled that his starting position was taken away on the first day of free agency, but I believe his contract is more than enough considering his injury history. Sheppard has missed 19 regular season games in his 6-year career, not to mention all of the playoff games he’s missed with late season injuries and he still was paid. So I say his real beef should be with how the situation was handled, with the giving away of his starting position and how he has been on the trading block since then only to not be traded. No one can dispute with what Andy Reid has done by giving the starting cornerback position to Asante Samuel, he’s just flat out better than Lito at the position and is much more durable, but this should have been resolved shortly after the Samuel signing and the team is wrong for not finding a resolution by trading him. The fact of the matter still remains that Lito signed a contract and should be bound to it. I’m sure there were no complaints when his contract was extended and he received an $8.7million signing bonus in 2004. I do believe he is worth more than the $2,731,720 he will receive this year in comparison to the other corners in the league when he’s healthy, but his injury last season is not helping his case at all. He missed five games early in the season and never seemed to be at 100% through the remainder of the season, and he can’t expect much more in the way of salary since the NFL is a “what have you done for me lately” league. I’m just glad Lito’s being a man about the situation and not a diva, ala Chad Johnson and Terrell Owens. Big ups to Lito!