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ChicagoSports.com: Losing Berrian a gaffe by Bears





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Losing Berrian a gaffe by Bears
 Berrian makes out great, but Briggs is losing out
 David Haugh
 On the Bears

 March 2, 2008

 Lance Briggs and Bernard Berrian employ the same agent, Drew Rosenhaus.

 Berrian should give Rosenhaus a fat raise first thing Sunday for
convincing the Minnesota Vikings to overpay the wide receiver $42
million for six years, including $16 million in guarantees that
doubled the Bears' best offer.

 Briggs, on the other hand, should fire Rosenhaus immediately.

 The surprise six-year, $36 million contract with $12 million up front
that Briggs hastily agreed to Saturday night should have been sealed
with a handshake and a white flag. Quite simply, he caved.

 Briggs' total surrender capped two years of avoidable acrimony over a
contract dispute that began when the linebacker turned down a $33
million, seven-year offer that doesn't look much different from the
deal Briggs just signed.

 He had waited two years for this weekend, this moment. Rosenhaus had
assured Briggs it would be worth it once teams started throwing money
at his feet. Then this weekend came and Briggs was stuck in Arizona
waiting for the phone to ring. It didn't.

 Were teams turned off by Lance Briggs the player or the person?

 Between April 2006 and now, of course, Briggs vowed never to play for
the Bears again on national TV, at Rosenhaus' behest, changed his mind
and reported to training camp on time. Slowly, his image around the
city and the league changed too.

 Sure, Briggs pocketed $7.2 million for getting the franchise tag last
year, but it was costly to his reputation.

 It all could have been so easily avoided by removing ego, emotion and
drama from the equation, advice Briggs got from the media but never
from his agent. Maybe now Briggs can be the guy he was before he
started chasing the almighty guaranteed dollar.

 Big picture, Briggs returning to the Bears' defense means they don't
have to replace a Pro Bowl linebacker and allows them to free up a
little more money, finally, to give Brian Urlacher the bonus payout he
seeks. That issue didn't go away Saturday. Neither did Tommie Harris'
dissatisfaction with his opening contract proposal.

 Be careful, Bears fans, in cheering this development too wildly.
Don't confuse your shock with glee and go crazy celebrating the status
quo of a 7-9 football team. The Bears are still 0-for-2008 in finding
new players to fix the offense—which remains priority No. 1.

 The return of Briggs will permit the Bears to believe they can put
back together a dominant defense that will allow them to compete for
an NFC North title. And they can. But it's an overstatement to say it
does much more than that.

 Besides, it's hard to get too excited about the Bears after the day
they lost the one guy who gave their passing game legitimacy—Berrian.

 Deep is always where Berrian has done the most damage in the NFL. The
Bears found out for themselves just how deeply Berrian can hurt a
football team.

 This will be the gaffe that keeps on giving for the Bears, and it
didn't have to happen. General manager Jerry Angelo gambled and lost
by letting Berrian hit the open market rather than using the franchise
tag to keep him in Chicago and negotiate a long-term deal or pay him a
$7.86 million salary.

 Heck, Briggs is a perfect example of how a team against all odds can
retain one of its own players by employing the franchise tag.

 Had Angelo used the contractual tool at his disposal, Berrian and
Briggs would be Bears today, and there would be real reason to
celebrate at Halas Hall.

 Losing Berrian hurts the Bears' offense more than keeping Briggs
helps the defense.

 The Bears clearly don't agree or else they would have gone after
offensive free agents they might afford with a different sense of
urgency. The Jets signed guard Alan Faneca. The Falcons courted
running back Michael Turner, who is wondering why his hometown team
has ignored him. The Vikings wooed Berrian on the same day the Browns
signed Donte' Stallworth.

 The Bears? They have chatted with the agent of Bryant Johnson, who
never has had a 50-catch season.

 Angelo maintaining sobriety in the NFL marketplace of offensive
players might drive a Bears fan to drink. Had Berrian landed in, say,
Oakland, Angelo's decision might not have backfired as loudly in
Chicago. But Berrian putting on a Vikings hat Saturday not only
weakened his old team but strengthened a division foe the Bears will
struggle to beat twice a year.

 Top to bottom, the move might make the Vikings a better team than the Bears.

 A defense that suddenly has fewer questions might argue with that.
But it's also the same defense that was the fifth-worst in the NFL
with Briggs starting 14 games.

 dhaugh at tribune.com

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