Carolina Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith has admitted his surprise at comments made by head coach Ron Rivera and general manager Dave Gettleman regarding his future.
Rivera recently said at the NFL scouting combine that he was "unsure" whether Smith would remain with the franchise next season, while Gettleman said something similar when he was asked the same question.
Smith was drafted by the Panthers in 2001 and is due to earn $7m (£4.2m) if he is kept on in 2014.
"I would have wished that I would have been afforded the opportunity to be given a heads up by our GM and also by coach Rivera," Smith said to Charlotte-based radio station WBT-AM. "When I did my exit meeting, no one spoke to me about it in that manner, so the unfortunate part of it is I had to hear secondhand.
"We have to read into things and we try not to, but when we speak of an individual's career in the past tense, I think ultimately it would suggest that a team is moving on, and that's all I can do. No one has still reached out to me and told me anything.
"I'm just taking it one day at time. I don't really know what's going on, to be honest. Until a couple days ago, I didn't know my football career was in jeopardy, so it's a lot that I have to process."
Smith will turn 35 before the new NFL season begins.
Joe McPhee
