[CBFF] Calling Bears cheap is right on the money

[Kenny Claxton]

Reading Jay Mariotti lowers your I.Q.

On 2/27/07, mom2iancal <senzigx4 at charter.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> Calling Bears cheap is right on the money
>
> February 27, 2007
>
> BY JAY MARIOTTI Sun-Times Columnist
>
> What's next at Halas Hall, a shaved head and a ratty wig? I don't want to
> describe the Bears as the Britney Spears of the 2007 sports year, but
> they're
> perfectly capable of blowing all their credibility and couth with dizbrain
> thinking. A quality organization would have rewarded Lovie Smith long ago,
> paid
> Lance Briggs, pacified Thomas Jones and not made another silly blanket
> commitment to Rex Grossman, whose raggedy reputation was further singed by
> an
> indicting Indianapolis sound bite during the Super Bowl debacle.
>
> ''He's scared to death,'' noted Colts defensive line coach John Teerlinck,
> echoing the world's thoughts on a waterlogged evening when Prince showed
> more
> poise then Rexy.
>
> But the Bears are not a quality organization. At a time when stable
> leadership is critical to mending wounds and keeping eyeballs on another
> NFC title,
> they are proving to be cheap, petty, shortsighted and all those nasty
> things
> we've always said about the McCaskeys and the former tax accountant who
> serves
> as their financial henchman, Ted Phillips. Oh, and might I add deceptive?
> When the Bears demanded public financing for the Soldier Field renovation,
> then
> asked fans to buy seat licenses, they did so because they needed to
> ''compete'' in the modern NFL. Subsequently, the franchise value ($945
> million, Forbes
> magazine says) soared as quickly as earnings ($51.5 million in 2005).
>
> So where are the profits going? As yet, not to Smith, whose status as the
> league's lowest-paid head coach is more an embarrassment to Halas Hall
> than to
> him. No more a Teddy Bear at the negotiating table than George Halas was a
> Papa Bear, Phillips is setting the tone for a possible sour encore season
> by
> making Smith sweat through an absurd taffy pull. In virtually any other
> pro
> franchise, a coach who returns a team to the big game for the first time
> in 21
> years is merrily handed a market-value deal. In Smith's case, that should
> be
> at least $5 million a season, if not more, seeing how a rookie head coach,
> Atlanta's Bobby Petrino, just received $4.8 million a year, and two other
> coaches who took teams to Super Bowls and lost, Carolina's John Fox and
> Tennessee's
> Jeff Fisher, have cracked the $5 million mark.
>
> Tightwad Ted doesn't subscribe to this fairness doctrine. Despite the
> presence of the George S. Halas Trophy at Halas Hall -- the hardware Smith
> vowed to
> win for Virginia McCaskey, whose father bought the franchise for $100 --
> Phillips prefers to lowball Smith with an offer below $3.5 million a year.
> That
> is about the amount offered to Nick Saban three years ago when he was
> still a
> college coach, a deal he fortunately turned down, making way for Smith's
> hire. I inject this because Phillips keeps referring to Smith's original
> contract as ''fair'' for a first-time NFL coach, which is bunk when he
> offered Saban
> nearly three times as much to become, um, a first-time NFL coach. Imagine
> being Lovie and knowing he's just now getting a similar offer to Saban's
> in
> 2004, even though he reached a Super Bowl while Saban bombed out with the
> Dolphins. Most people won't weep for Lovie or start a salary fund, but if
> you're
> interested in the well-being of the Bears, this is distressing stuff.
>
> Lovie has all the leverage
>
> Already, management has sucked any redeeming joy from the season by making
> us wonder again about priorities. Is the aim to win a championship or have
> the
> highest profit margin? The last thing the Bears want to do is send a
> negative message to their players, but that's exactly what they've done in
> the Lovie
> saga. As it is, the vibes are bad in the case of Briggs, who should be
> locked up long-term via a lucrative deal under a cushy salary cap. Now
> they have
> to watch their coach and his agent, Frank Bauer, turn the squabble into a
> public brawl, which isn't Smith's style but certainly is necessary.
>
> ''Ted can't bring himself to do what I think is right,'' Bauer told the
> Sun-Times. ''It's a situation where we're not close, and I feel it is
> going to
> take a miracle to get this thing broken open.''
>
> I would urge Smith not to budge until his price is met. He has all the
> leverage, with even NFL people condemning the Bears for their Misers of
> the Midway
> approach. Should Phillips be crazy enough to let Smith enter the season as
> a
> lame duck, the Bears would be lampooned nationally for wrecking a great
> thing, just as they were lampooned when Michael McCaskey's buffoonery cost
> them
> Dave McGinnis. Anything less than a return to the Super Bowl would turn
> the
> town angrily against management and prompt another lame search for a cheap
> candidate. The season would be a miserable, nonstop Lovie watch. And not a
> soul
> would blame the coach, though general manager Jerry Angelo will blame the
> media.
>
> ''It's big because you're making it big,'' said Angelo, who is about to
> sign
> his extension. ''You were having a dormant offseason. It gives you
> something
> to write about, something to talk about. You can get your conspiracy
> theories going.''
>
> Truth be known, Jerry, the media would prefer to discuss how the Bears are
> committed to a championship after coming so close. They'd prefer to write
> that
> Smith is locked in, Briggs is happy and Jones won't be traded, a bad idea
> that Angelo is courting even though Cedric Benson is an injury liability,
> still
> unproven as a starting back and always a potential distraction. Most media
> preferred to see continuity within the coaching staff and a new, deserving
> deal for Ron Rivera, not a Smith-led purge of Rivera and other assistants
> that
> smacks of finger-pointing. They might like an open competition at
> quarterback,
> not the latest endorsement of Grossman.
>
> Bears figure to follow Seahawks
>
> But Halas Hall is stubborn this way. Never mind that memories are still
> fresh of the Dolphin Stadium interview room, where Muhsin Muhammad was
> dissing
> Grossman at a podium while Rex, a few feet away, wondered why Muhammad --
> no
> world-class leaper -- couldn't soar for one of his misguided quails. Never
> mind
> that Grossman has been chided by media and fans nationwide, all convinced
> he
> isn't championship material. All together now: Rex is still the guy. And
> if
> Wade Wilson couldn't help tutor him, someone named Pep Hamilton will,
> dammit.
>
> Hate to break the news, but five of the last six Super Bowl losers didn't
> make the playoffs. Don't be shocked if the Bears fare like the exception
> to
> that trend, the Seattle Seahawks, as second-round losers. Last season was
> about
> Lovie Love, about a united team defending Rex and Tank Johnson when the
> masses were piling on.
>
> The love, I'm afraid, has been overwhelmed by dysfunction.
>
> Jay Mariotti is a regular on ''Around the Horn'' at 4 p.m. on ESPN. Send
> e-mail to _inbox at suntimes.com_ (mailto:inbox at suntimes.com) with name,
> hometown
> and daytime phone number (letters run Sunday).
>
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