[CBFF] Behavior analysis: Bears already done as '07 contenders

[Steve Behrens]

(I hate this guy.... He's such a frick'n putz....)



Behavior analysis: Bears already done as '07 contenders
      May 17, 2007
*By Clark Judge <http://www.sportsline.com/columns/writers/judge>*
*CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer*


Remember that hex the Super Bowl puts on losing teams the following seasons?
It's alive, well and living in Halas Hall.

There you'll find the Chicago
Bears<http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/teams/page/CHI>,
last year's Super Bowl losers and the first club to be DQ'd from this year's
NFL championship game. Normally, you wait until November or December before
telephoning the league coroner, but the Bears will spare you the trouble.

Make that call now.

It's not that the Bears don't have the talent to win. They do. It's not that
they made dumb offseason moves, either, because they didn't. It has nothing
to do with the draft or with Rex
Grossman<http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/players/playerpage/396159>imitating
the Venus De Milo or with a division that is barely visible in the
rear-view mirror.

Nope, this has to do with the Bears' behavior. It stinks, and, yeah, I'm
talking about Lance
Briggs<http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/players/playerpage/395932>,
Alex Brown <http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/players/playerpage/301991> and Tank
Johnson <http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/players/playerpage/492969>.

Once they couldn't stop making plays, fixtures in the NFL's toughest
defense. Now, they can't stop making news, with Brown stepping forward this
week to announce he asked the Bears' permission to seek a trade.

Not because he's unhappy. Not because he becomes a free agent next year. Not
because he doesn't like the coaching staff. But because "I just want to see
what else is out there," Brown said on Sirius Radio.

Swell.

No, I don't get it, either. But what I am beginning to understand is that
these Bad News Bears look more like a bunch of misfits than a football team,
and that's not how you overcome the post-Super Bowl blues.

Lest you forget, teams that lose a Super Bowl one season typically go into
the jar the next. Five of the past six, in fact, not only failed to reach
the playoffs the following seasons; they couldn't win more than they lost.

Seattle broke that skid last year when it won its division with a 9-7 record
before losing to Chicago in the playoffs.

So at least there's hope for the Bears, especially when you survey the field
in the NFC North. But football is a team game, and if you don't behave as a
team, you don't go far -- which Chicago seems intent on proving.

Earlier this week, I was talking to an AFC offensive coordinator when the
conversation turned to the Bears, and it wasn't long before he started
wondering how a club this dysfunctional survives the season. When I reminded
him they play in a division with the Packers, Vikings and Lions, he stopped
wondering.

"Still," he said, "I can't see them doing much."

I can't, either, and that's not a knock on general manager Jerry Angelo,
coach Lovie Smith or Smith's assistants. It's an acknowledgement of a
disturbing trend involving Super Bowl losers, as well as disturbing behavior
by some of Chicago's top defensive players.

At the head of the class is Briggs, who rebelled after he was designated the
team's franchise player -- demanding a trade and insisting he won't play for
the Bears again. That means he doesn't show up for training camp, which
means training camp just got a whole lot more interesting.

Look what happened with Dallas last summer when then-coach Bill Parcells was
barraged with Terrell
Owens<http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/players/playerpage/1290>questions.
First, he bristled. Then, he just stopped answering. But at least
T.O. was there. What do you think happens when Briggs pulls a no-show?

And he might not be the only one missing from the lineup. Johnson met with
commissioner Roger Goodell this week after Johnson spent two months in jail
on weapons charges. Johnson appealed for leniency, but I don't see how it
happens. I mean, Jamal
Lewis<http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/players/playerpage/187391>did time
in the big house, too, and he was suspended two games by a
commissioner more lenient than Goodell.

Plus, the timing is all wrong for Tank. He comes along when Goodell is
determined to clean up the NFL's Guys Gone Wild and after the commissioner
brought down the hammer on Pacman
Jones<http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/players/playerpage/552555>and
Cincinnati's Chris
Henry <http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/players/playerpage/412641>.

The prevailing opinion is that Johnson sits down, with a half a season a
possibility.

Then there's Brown, and don't ask me what happens there. The Bears don't
have to budge, and they won't. I don't know what that does to Brown, but I
have a pretty good idea what it means for team chemistry.

Give me that pen. I need it to delete Chicago from the Super Bowl.