Sports

Cowboys' Frederick 'Compartmentalizing' The Contract Talk

July 31, 2016 / 2:15 PM CDT / CBS Texas

Follow The Fan: Facebook | Twitter

OXNARD (105.3 THE FAN) - Travis Frederick is a smart fellow, able to keep his football over here and his fun over there and his finances still farther over there. So amid plans for Cowboys management to discuss with the Pro Bowl center a long-term contract extension, I asked him about his ability to "compartmentalize."

"I think it's really important, for anybody in professional sports, to be able to compartmentalize everything," Frederick told me. "You gotta leave family aside, especially when you come out here to training camp and you're leaving your family back in Dallas or wherever they are, to really focus on football. It's a reminder that we need to leave all of those things separate, especially when we come out here on the field."

The Cowboys picked up Frederick's fifth-year option earlier this offseason, so he is under contract through the 2017 season (at $8.8 mil) and this year is making $2 mil. The Cowboys would like to find ways to keep Frederick and the rest of this talented young O-line together.

"It's a challenge," Cowboys COO Stephen Jones said, "but it's a great one to have."

Frederick can eventually demand a price that puts him in the same class with Atlanta center Alex Mack (with his five-year contract worth $45 million, including $28.5 million guaranteed). But he's not thinking about that at the moment.

"For me, this camp is really about coming out and trying to get better individually and and get our group better and focus on football, not on (contract negotiations)," Frederick said. "I have an agent that deals with all that stuff. If they get anything done, he'll bring it to me and we'll get things figured out."

I asked Frederick if, while he is doing all this compartmentalizing, it's safe to assume that it is his desire is to stay with the Cowboys.

"Obviously it'd be fun to stick in one place,'' he said, "and make something work."