[CBFF] Briggs Has Met the Enemy and It Is Not Who He Thinks It Is

[Phil DeNomme]

Good article, Tom.

-----Original Message-----
From: cbff-bounces at chicagobearsfanforum.com
[mailto:cbff-bounces at chicagobearsfanforum.com] On Behalf Of Tom Shannon
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 8:38 AM
To: post at chicagobearsfanforum.com
Subject: [CBFF] Briggs Has Met the Enemy and It Is Not Who He Thinks It Is

http://bloggeddrain.typepad.com/cbff/2007/03/briggs_has_met_.html

 

Briggs Has Met the Enemy and It Is Not Who He Thinks It Is

 

By Tom Shannon

 

So it would seem that Lance Briggs has a little problem, doesn't it?  And it
would seem that in his righteous anger that he has found an adversary who is
responsible for all of his woes in the Bears'  organization.  Briggs went
public with a simple message this week.  He no longer feels that he can play
for a Bears organization that has betrayed him by putting a franchise tag on
him, thus restricting his ability to move in free agency.  But are the Bears
really the enemy here or is it something else that has conspired to put
Briggs in this situation?

 

First let's be clear about something.  Briggs really does have a problem.
Yes, he's being "forced" to play for "only" 7 or so million dollars.  And
yes, that money is guaranteed.  But despite what you may think, that isn't
everything.  In a sport where every play could be the last you get to see
for a long time, security comes not only in the form of any old guaranteed
money but in the upfront kind of guaranteed money that comes as part of  a
long term contract.  Teams are much less likely to give up on a player after
something like an injury when large amounts of that money is still deferred
over a number of years.  Releasing that player when this is the case means
that the hit to the salary cap accelerates into one year and comes all in
one blow.  Few teams can afford to do that often.  Unlike the deal with a
franchise tag where Briggs gets big money and security for only one year, a
long term deal for Briggs probably means he'll be a player for the Bears for
at least three.

 

However, unlike the normal situation here where the salary cap can be his
friend, it is one of Brigg's biggest problems right now.  Ordinarily teams
are hesitant to franchise players because, as stated above, all of the money
is guaranteed.  It can't be deferred over time and paying a player the
average of the top five linebackers for one year in guaranteed money can
cause huge cap headaches.  Not so this year.  The cap rose a huge amount
this offseason due to a change in the recently negotiated collective
bargaining agreement.  Teams can now use the franchise tag and they are
doing so in larger numbers than they have in the past.

 

But the cap changes don't really tell the whole story nor do they point to
the real source of Briggs' problems, which is most certainly not the Bears
organization.  General manager Jerry Angelo has made it quite clear in the
past that he does not favor applying the franchise tag to players.  Angelo
has acknowledged discomfort with the idea because of the unhappiness it
causes the players.  And believe it or not, Angelo knows that it is in the
team's best interest to keep Briggs to be happy, at least within reason.
The best thing for everyone when a player and an organization disagree on
the monetary value that player has to allow the player to hit the free
market.  The player then finds his value and gives the home town team a fair
chance to match it.  He's happy because, even if his value wasn't as high as
he thought, he knows that he being paid the correct amount.

 

This is the way it's supposed to work and, in an ideal world, the Bears very
likely would have put the transition tag on Briggs, not the franchise tag.
This would allow Briggs to find his best deal and would give the Bears the
opportunity to match.  Why didn't the Bears do this?

 

Let's roll back the clock and consider the case of Steve Hutchinson.
Hutchinson was generally acknowledged to be among the best, if not the best,
guard in the NFL last year.  He hit the free agent market and the Seattle
Seahawks decided to put the transition tag on him, figuring that with the
cap space they had available they would be able to match any offer that
Hutchinson got.  Thus, once again, both parties would be happy.  But it
didn't work this way.  The Minnesota Vikings made Hutchinson a tremendous
offer, $49 million over 7 years.  It was an offer that no one else at the
time was likely to make but even given the huge amount of money involved,
the Seahawks likely would have matched it.  So the Vikings added a hitch.
They would only make the offer if Hutchinson allowed them to put a "poison
pill" clause in the contract.  Hutchinson would have to be the highest paid
player on the offensive line or the entire contract would become guaranteed.
There was no way the Seahawks could do this with Walter Jones at left tackle
on their line.  Hutchinson knew that full well but he also knew that no one
else was going to make him an offer that lucrative.  So despite the fact
that he was relatively happy in Seattle and that he knew the Seahawks were
going to have no chance of matching the offer, he grabbed the money and ran.
This was the first salvo in the famous "Poison Pill Bowl"
(http://www.nfl.com/news/story/9737965) involving Minnesota wide receiver
Nate Burleson.

 

So what does all of this have to do with Briggs?  Poison pill contracts like
Hutchinson's have become a common way to do business in the NFL.  Players
are taking the highest offer, accepting the poison pill clause, and going to
the bank with it knowing that they are not giving their old teams a chance
to match it.  This is good for them but it's terrible for those following
behind.  Despite the fact that Jerry Angelo would probably rather let Briggs
find out what he's worth on the market, he knows that it's very likely that
the contract offer that Briggs signs will be such that the Bears will have
virtually no chance of keeping him.  The Bears can't afford to let that
happen.

 

And so here is where Briggs meets the real enemy.  It isn't just a Bears
organization with whom he simply disagrees on his worth.  In truth, they are
the least to blame.  Their situation is also far from ideal.  They're paying
him a great deal of guaranteed money this year and they are allowing him to
eat up a great deal of cap space to do it, something they cannot be happy
about.  If Briggs wants to know who are the real cause of his problems, he
need only look around at his fellow players and their agents (including his
own).  It is their greed, fed by a few foolish NFL organizations, and not
the Bears who have made it nearly impossible for him to get a fair long term
deal on the open market.

 

 

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