[CBFF] Briggs plans 10-game holdout to combat franchise tag

[mom2iancal]

Briggs plans 10-game holdout to combat franchise tag 

March 27, 2007 

BY MIKE MULLIGAN Staff Reporter 

PHOENIX -- Remember when Lance Briggs vowed never to play for the Bears 
again? Brace yourself for the new plan. 

Drew Rosenhaus, Briggs' agent, said Monday at the NFL owners meetings that 
his client will line up for the Bears next season -- but only on a limited 
basis if the team refuses to remove the franchise tag it put on the linebacker. 
Rosenhaus said Briggs would sit out the first 10 games, then return for the 
final six to accrue a played season under league rules. 

The maneuver apparently is an attempt to avoid sitting out the season for no 
pay and allowing the Bears to have the right to use the franchise tag on 
Briggs for two more seasons. 

''That is the plan, come back and play the last six games of the season,'' 
Rosenhaus said. 

Franchise-tag rules changed with the new collective bargaining agreement 
signed last year. Teams can use the tag on the same player for two seasons while 
paying him the average of the top five salaries at his position. That number 
is $7.2 million in 2007. If a team uses the tag for a third season, the 
player must be paid the average of the top five salaries in the league, regardless 
of position. 

If Briggs doesn't sign the tender offer and sits out a season, as he 
threatened, then the clock on the tag starts all over again. By coming in for the 
final six games, 2007 would count as one season with a tag. The downside is 
Briggs would receive only the prorated amount of the $7.2 million spread out 
over the 17-week season. 

''After 10 games, he'll come in,'' Rosenhaus said. ''We're going to limit 
our injury risk as much as possible.'' 

It's unclear how much missing offseason workouts, training camp and the 
first 10 games would limit Briggs' injury risk, but Rosenhaus hopes the point is 
moot. He said he came to the owners meetings in part to talk to NFL 
decision-makers about Briggs and try to work out a trade that would appeal to the 
Bears. 

A report on NFL.com on Monday evening said the Bears were talking to the 
Washington Redskins about a deal in which they would move up from No. 31 to No. 
6 in the first round. 

''There is a lot of interest in Lance,'' Rosenhaus said. ''The challenging 
aspect is that it won't be at the two first-round [picks] price tag that you 
have with a franchise player. So we have to find a trade that has to work for 
the Bears, as well.'' 

Various other Internet and TV reports said Briggs had met with Bears general 
manager Jerry Angelo on Monday night in Phoenix. 

The Bears essentially have ignored Briggs and Rosenhaus and the various 
threats they have been making over the last month. 

''We don't have anything to say,'' team president Ted Phillips said Monday. 
''We franchised him. He's going to make a lot of money. We think he's a good 
player, and we want him on our team. It's as simple as that from our 
standpoint.'' 

Phillips reiterated that the Bears made Briggs a lucrative long-term offer 
last offseason and told him and Rosenhaus when they turned it down that the 
team had the right to put a franchise tag on Briggs. 

''They knew this was coming months ago,'' Phillips said. ''It's not a big 
surprise. ... It's part of the system. It's just a tool we have. Free agency is 
a tool the players have.'' 

_mmulligan at suntimes.com_ (mailto:mmulligan at suntimes.com) 

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