COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — As part of the Colorado Rapids’ continuing trend of locking up core veteran players to contract extensions, defender Drew Moor became the latest Rapid to pledge his future to the club by putting pen to paper on a multi-year extension Tuesday.
Per league and team policy, terms of the contract were not released.
Armed with his trademark ear-to-ear smile and perhaps an extra pep in his step following practice, the 28-year-old Moor explained to MLSsoccer.com Tuesday his reasons for electing to stay in Commerce City for the foreseeable future.
“I think it’s a team that, yeah, we’ve won a championship in the past, but I think it’s moving towards greater things than just one championship,” said the former FC Dallas central defender, who came to Colorado in a 2009 trade. “I don’t want to settle for just one championship. I think once you win one you realize how special it is and how much you don’t want anybody else to win it.
"This is an organization that I see certainly moving towards that direction. We’ve put in a lot of work over the past, I’d say, eight, nine months, and we look forward to continue putting in work and I’d love to be here for every bit of it.”
Moor is the latest veteran Rapid to re-sign with the club, following striker Omar Cummings’ and midfielder Jeff Larentowicz’s new deals within the past two months. Midfielder Brian Mullan also agreed to a multi-year extension in December. So with the Rapids appearing to put together a strong veteran foundation for down the road, Moor felt it was a no-brainer to commit to Colorado, although the other re-signings didn’t necessarily impact his decision to stay.
“I don’t think it necessarily influenced my decision,” the Dallas native said. “I’m happy here right now regardless. But to see those happen in the past couple months, it’s certainly exciting [and] it certainly creates potential for a nice run here in the next couple years. And now it’s up to us to do it.”
Moor’s aerial prowess, combined with fellow center back Marvell Wynne’s elite speed, has helped the center back tandem become one of the league’s best, and Moor has even developed a knack for scoring clutch goals from time to time. The former Indiana Hoosier collected four goals a season ago and has two in the early goings of 2012, and that has Moor potentially thinking Colorado could be the place he finishes his career.
“Obviously, you never know what can happen down the line, if it was up to me then for sure, I’d love to finish my career here in Denver,” Moor said.
“It’s huge being able to lead a team with guys like Jeff Larentowicz, Brian Mullan, you know, Omar Cummings, Marvell Wynne,” Moor said. “These are guys you want to go into battle with, and you know those are guys you want to learn from and look up to and also have standing beside you. So I think it’s huge when you can get a core group of guys like that who have won championships who have been to championship games and know what it takes, and I’m happy to be here with them.”
Chris Bianchi covers the Colorado Rapids for MLSsoccer.com.
