Cowboys safety Damontae Kazee is not pleased with how his tenure with the Falcons ended.
The Falcons (4-4) are set to face the Cowboys (6-2) at 1 p.m. Sunday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“The only thing I remember in Atlanta is me getting hurt and me getting kicked out of rehab,” Kazee said told Dallas media members Wednesday. “That is all I remember.”
That didn’t go over well inside of 4400 Falcons Parkway, the address of the Falcons’ headquarters.
“We treat everybody with the utmost respect,” Falcons coach Arthur Smith said. “People may not like the decisions that we make. That’s fair. But when you’re talking about how people remember something, certainly we treat every player here, every person that comes through this door that works with us, we treat them with the utmost respect and dignity.”
The hard-hitting Kazee was injured in the second quarter against Green Bay on Oct. 5, 2020, the fourth game of the season. He suffered a torn Achilles, and as of March 5, he was rehabbing in the team’s facilities.
“They let me go,” Kazee said. “They told me I can’t do rehab up there no more.”
Kazee’s contract was set to run out March 17, but he wanted to return. However, the new regime was moving in another direction at the safety position.
“This is a tough business,” Smith said. “One thing that (general manager) Terry (Fontenot) and I always do, we talk with everybody. We never lose the human aspect of it in a very tough profession.”
Kazee said his departure doesn’t provide extra incentive for the coming game.
“Nah, nah,” Kazee said. “On to the next. Can’t get mad. That is life. This is a business at the end of the day.”
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