Wes Welker has “9.5 million reasons” why he won’t miss a regular season game.

There will not be a sincere controversy this year regarding Patriots receiver Wes Welker. Much to his chagrin, Welker was hit with the franchise tag  as he worked to get an extended deal done.

When he skipped the start of off-season activities and workouts, there was the hum that he was digging in his heels to fight for long term contract.

Though he still is working for that deal there is zero chance that he will miss a regular season game according to an interview he did on the Mut & Merloni Show.

“No, not at all. Not at all, Welker said. There’s 9 1/2 million reasons why I wouldn’t miss any regular-season game. So, I don’t have to worry about that.”

Translation: You must be crazy if you think I’ll pass up lottery money to make a point. They can franchise me again next year if they want to. I’ll keep collecting those nearly $10 million dollar checks if they want to be that way about it.

But he still wants the long-term security blanket, so he may or may not show up for mini-camps.

“We’re still kind of waiting, but I’d really like to be there,” he said. “I don’t know. To say I’m going one way or another right now, I’m not going to say definite or anything like that. But I would definitely like to be at those minicamps for sure.”

“I think we’re all on the same page,” he said. “And we’re all trying to collectively come together and make something happen. I think everybody just needs to know that. We’re all on the same page and we’re trying to work toward something.”

“We’re just kind of moving along. I have a great relationship with coach and (owner) Mr. Kraft and with the front office and everybody else. I don’t think there’s any sort of hard feelings on my side or their side. I think we’re all looking forward to the 2012 season and hopefully do some big things there.”

To his credit, Welker is trying to stick up for himself in the most assertive way possible.  There have been some detractors such as former Patriot/NFL Network analyst Willie McGinest.

McGinest if you remember called Welker out on national television for taking a stand. Welker fired back on (where else?) Twitter and the two have since spoken about the situation.

“I was a little bit surprised, just because I know that he knows what a business this is,” Welker said. “Especially being in the position that he’s been put in and stuff, that he kind of put me out there like that. But it’s all in good fun, man. I’m not too worried about it. I’ve talked with Willie a few times and stuff. So, it’s all good. There’s nothing but love and all those things. But we had to go back and forth on that a little bit.

What have we learned today? Wes Welker won’t be a serious distraction to the franchise because he has 99 problems but being broke ain’t one.