[CBFF] Calling Bears cheap is right on the money

Tue Feb 27 09:23:32 MST 2007

LOL!!!  I thought I was feeling a bit different

teri

~A Morning  Without Coffee is Sleep~
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kenny Claxton" <kenny.claxton at gmail.com>
To: <post at chicagobearsfanforum.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 9:58 AM
Subject: Re: [CBFF] Calling Bears cheap is right on the money

> 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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>>
>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>>
>>
>>
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