Players and Management Both Looking Foolish.........

Bears players and management competing for Village Idiot crown


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Steve Rosenbloom The RosenBlog 9:22 a.m. CDT, August 30, 2011


The Choice (and remember, death is not an option): Bears wonks’ ongoing public stupidity or Bears players’ ongoing public money-grubbing?


Congratulations to everyone at Halas Hall. They’ve shown great teamwork in making the operation up there look like a joke. (Gotta admit he makes a point with the Chester Taylor thing. I haven't seen anything that screwed up since Mikey announced the signing of Dave McGinnis as the Bears new HC before he'd ever agreed to take the job. The hoo boy level is rising in Lake Forest right now)http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/...3-04115512.jpg



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On Monday, Bears coach Lovie Smith said he told Chester Taylor he wasn’t in the team’s plans, so Taylor left. Then the Bears wondered why he didn’t show up for practice. “Evidently, he took it the wrong way,’’ Smith said, and I’m wondering, how many ways can you take not being part of the team’s plans? I mean, should a player know instinctively that he’s expected to stay around in case they need a fill-in to perform at weddings and bar-mitzvahs? (Apparently Chester Taylor doesn't speak or understand "Lovienese". Lovie said, "Chester you're worthless so turn in your playbook and get the hell out of my office!", but what he meant was "Chester we won't cut you until after the Browns game so that you have even less chance of catching on with another team". It was easy to see how there could have been a misunderstanding between them.)

More wonderful communication from the wonks in Lake Forest. Just like the draft weekend embarrassment where the Bears had a deal with the Ravens only the Bears assigned two people to apparently not make the right phone call. (Back off Rosenbloom. The job required three people and you know it. They just didn't have the budget for the third)

And don’t forget the group effort to absolutely humiliate Jay Cutler, only the starting quarterback in the NFC Championship Game. Cutler suffered a knee sprain early in the second quarter, played through it, refused doctor’s orders to sit out after halftime, took a painkilling shot, but couldn’t finish.

And the Bears very publicly allowed a guy who previously survived 52 sacks and a concussion to be characterized nationally and blindingly quick as someone with a Twinkie for a backbone and a Ho-Ho for a heart.

Instead of explaining that this knee sprain was actually a tear and that Cutler took a shot about a quarter before he finally couldn’t move and had no chance of coming back, the Bears said his return to the game was questionable, or whatever incorrect and unfair description they used. Cutler was out, period. Say it. You’re not fooling anyone, and besides, you’re looking like fools.

But no. The Bears failed to say it. They failed Cutler. They killed their own quarterback. It’s as if they have a rubber stamp that says “Schmuck’’ and an endless supply of ink. (Not only is this horse dead but it's been buried so long that it really stink badly whenver someone brings it up again so take a hint...................DON'T!

Meanwhile, everybody in the Bears’ locker room wants more money. Hey, me, too. Where do I get in line?

Not all of the Bears have done it the way Lance Briggs did last weekend or the way Matt Forte said it as soon as he got to training camp. In fact, a lot of players let Briggs take the hit himself, according to Trib colleague David Haugh’s column, and the fact that there are a lot of Bears players unhappy with their contracts is the point.

It’s also pointless. I thought NFL players had wised up this time. They stood up to the owners. They demanded their share of $9 billion. They refused to be sent to their room without dessert. They negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement.

And then wah-wah-wah.

The players missed the most important point: non-guaranteed contracts. They didn’t get the owners to agree to that. It’s your own fault, guys. Your own fault and your union’s.

So, if contracts aren’t guaranteed, then players really get their money up front in signing bonuses, not in the length and breadth of the years on the contract. That situation alone demands that every good player is guaranteed to “out-perform’’ his contract and every bad player is equally guaranteed to get cut before the team has to fork over more wasted cash. Do the math: Teams recoup the up-front money paid to the Tommie Harris failures of the world by paying 2008 market value in 2011, ’12 and 13 to Lance Briggs. (It may not be fair but he makes a good point. The only time a player really has any bargaining power is before the deal is signed, after that he has little or none and the new rules on fines for holdouts or no shows makes little virtually equivalent to none)

Players could’ve fought to guaranteed deals. They didn’t. They have the same situation, which leads to the same whining, which makes them sound stupid.

Look, if you have out-performed your contract, then you’re not smart enough to deserve more money. I mean, you shouldn’t have signed a deal that locked you up for so long. (This isn't 100% true since rookies have no choice in that matter so this should not apply to them)

And besides, the idea of someone “out-performing’’ a contract is likely an agent’s whine that ignores the great likelihood the player “under-performed’’ his contract at the start. (Once again this isn't 100% true either especially when it involves the rookie contracts of lower draft choices)

But players always want their money and there’s always the feeling that getting their money could affect their play, and even if you can’t prove it conclusively, perception is a horrible and sometimes embarrassing reality.

And so, less than two weeks before the season opener, that’s where we are with the the Bears’ wonks and players. Fun, huh?

The wonks and players ought to worry about a loon of an offensive coordinator who gave a starting pass-catching job to a guy who drops as many passes as he catches. (Now this I can get on board with 100% and it should be real interesting to see what happens in this instance after Mr Arrogant stuck his neck out for the guy and predicted he'd catch 70-80 passes. LOL, yeah he my if Cutler throws to him 500 times this year)

The wonks and players had better learn the difference between an offensive line getting better and being good. (For educational purposes they could have watched 2010 offensive game film from 29 other teams who all did better than we did)

The wonks and players ought to worry about generating a pass rush because they are dealing with some of the least desirable cornerbacks that they refused to upgrade and are relying on a kid free safety, all of whom appear to be the golden ticket for Matt Ryan, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers to make their contract bonuses in the first month. (I'll let you pick on the offense and Martz but not the defense. There's little more they could have done to improve the pass rush than they have so don't diss before the season even starts and as for Wright, he may get torched a few times but he has to learn sometime. Chris Harris didn't play at an all-pro level as a second year guy either.)

Maybe the wonks and players are in fact worried about those things and more. Question is, given what you’ve heard and seen from them, how confident are you that they’ll get it right this season? (They do some idiotic things, that I'll admit, but they're still my team and they're still a solid playoff team this year despite their front office and coaching fvck ups)


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4.00 from 19 ratings

Some of his commentary hits a little close to home. Like right on the front door step. Some of the rest is just a bit impractical and a rant. Still Rosenbloom is usually entertaining if nothing else.

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Originally Posted by soulman

Some of his commentary hits a little close to home. Like right on the front door step. Some of the rest is just a bit impractical and a rant. Still Rosenbloom is usually entertaining if nothing else.

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Matt Bowen stings the Bears over the Taylor deal too. I have to say that if they're aren't gonna keep him, which they're obviously not, why prolong the agony? We aren't gonna get an 80 year old beer vendor in trade and courtesy would say you let him go so he can catch on somewhere else so why is he still here?

Are Lovie and JA making him earn some of that $7 mil they paid him last year by keeping him around so that he can play against the Browns? My guess is that's what it's all about. Barber is recovering from his calf injury, Bell will play ST and get some carries and Forte will be lucky if they even let him suit up because this isn't a game where you want to risk guy who's 50% of your offense so any money Taylor gets to be the sacrificial lamb.

Some former players and scribes may not think much of the Bears for doing it but the way I see it is this guy virtually stole $7 mil from us last year and I have no problem using him to protect our other RB's for this one game and then cutting him. With what he sunk into him last year he should be able to retire pretty comfortably anyway!

Management/Coaches/Players looking bad seems to have become commong place over the past year or so. Trade/no trade during draft, botched field, CT saying he was cut but isn't(both team and player), RW opening his mouf. Mck's saying they love the turf....ooops we're getting a new turf company b/c it's the turf that is the problem....

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Originally Posted by Riczaj01

Management/Coaches/Players looking bad seems to have become commong place over the past year or so. Trade/no trade during draft, botched field, CT saying he was cut but isn't(both team and player), RW opening his mouf. Mck's saying they love the turf....ooops we're getting a new turf company b/c it's the turf that is the problem....

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If it was just one or two things you could just chalk it up to coincidence but this has been happening with a fair amount of regularity ever since the draft and even before if you look at the teams late and rather inadequate defense of Jay Cutler. We know the Bears have always been pretty tight lipped about what's going on in the organiaztion and JA in particular is a master of misdirection and misinformation but some of this stuff is a little hard to swallow as just being an accident or a misunderstanding.

It seems to me that there's been a change in attitude and the way they do things. Let's take that draft day snafu as an example. In the past it would have been hard to believe that the Bears would have pulled anything like that intentionally with the way Lovie and the team stress high character and moral fiber in their players. That deal might have been a signature move of Bill Belichek but not Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo. Now I have my doubts. In the old days when the league asked then to make it right I think they would have grudgingly agreed but not this time. Did it finally dawn on them that sometimes you have to play hardball to win.

Then comes FA and players after player passes us by and the word on the street is that JA is holding the purse strings very tightly. He spends $10 mil over 5 years for a punter and $6 mil over three for a TE after defying public sentiment and trading Greg Olsen to the Panthers. Then having been shut out on at least the two Olineman we know about, he stops pursuing them altogther and begins to dumpster dive other teams failed first rounders. First by replacing the more sure handed pass catching abilites of Olsen with the WR with a record of having some of the worst hands in the entire NFL, and to this guy he gives a $960k bonus. Then he takes on a failed LB/DE that even Rex Ryan couldn't get any use out of and gives him a $250k bonus. One guy has already been cut and by seasons end the other will be lucky to be the #3 WR on the team. Four free agents and not an Olineman in the bunch but we saved a ton of cap $$$ so far.

Now we finally pick up three guys who can help us, Hurd, Barber and Okoye but unfortunately none of them play OT or OG either. Then in a final unexpected showing of their new approach to cash management they hardball a team captain, our OC and QB of the Oline over $500k which is only twice what they already wasted on Gholston and approximately half of what we're gonna waste on Roy Williams who will not be a Chicago Bear for more than a year if I'm any judge of his talent. Now with no experienced OC they move our best RG to a position he's played only once in his entire career. Then they sign Olin's replacement who while younger, doesn't even rate as one of the top Olinman in FA where Trai Essex was at the bottom of that list. We pay him $6 mil for two years and so far he isn't even able to beat out a 32 year old RG who's playing out of position for the starting job.

Is it me that's crazy or can any of you find much sense in all of this other than gaining what appears to be some very good role players in Hurd, Barber, Okoye, and Spaeth and a $2 mil per year punter who is rumored to run a 4.4 forty. Great a guy who can punt AND be his own gunner, LOL. Seriously though, these were good moves which were made on a shoestring budget comparitively speaking and each of these guys will make us a better team.

Now we go to camp with about $20 mil in cap excess and as expected our own want a piece of that pie now before JA spends more of it on one of Mike Martz's pet resurrection projects. Forte asks for an extension and since he's only been about 50% of our offense (I know I'm exaggerating a little) for the past three years and he's in the last years of his rookie deal he deserves it. JA says yes, I hear you and coming right up. You're our priority and it turns out then even the US Postal Services Priority Mail is ten times faster than JA is at getting around to that. Why don't we all go out, by a cheap dictionary, tear out the page with the word priority on it and mail in to him care of Halas Hall. Either he isn't familiar with it's meaning or he got it confused with the old procrastinators favorite excuse, "I'll get around to it". Somebody mail him one of those wooden round tuits will ya?

Next comes Lance Briggs looking for a raise for himself and everyone else who needs one but I'll bet he's not willing to ask them to give Garza, the lowest paid 10 year vet starter in the NFL, a little bump first. There's another guy whose backup makes more than he does! Well when Briggsy says his deal is outdated but suggests an easy solution which is to simply swap his last year and it's $6.25 mil salary with this years $3.65 mil salary, instead of making that concession and saving himself the season long drama this will create he plays hardball again so now Lance wants a whole new deal or a trade. Or at least that's what Rosenhaus wants so he can get paid the big bucks again. God how I hate that coc&suc&er.

And on top of all of that CEO Georgie M decides to play hardball with the CPD by refusing to even consider an alternate playing surface for Soldier Field instead chosing simply to change the sod supplier. George that new sod could be made of the purest hardiest strains of whatever the fvck kind of grass is best in northern climates but that shit still won't grow in November. So when the field is sloppy and players are slipping and tripping and the commentators are ripping it apart on national TV every home game remember that you did it the Bears way. We're "hardball" now boys. Look out Packers Super Bowl here we come.

This message has been brought to you by one thoroughly confused life long Bears fan! :18_1_205:

This is a thread that homers should not read. lol

As I said in another post.
..BACK UP DA TRUCK!!!!

LOL... Soap operah B.S. for the lady men who eat it up....

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(For educational purposes they could have watched 2010 offensive game film from 29 other teams who all did better than we did)

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This one made me laugh yet it is so true. lol

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Originally Posted by 4th and 26

This one made me laugh yet it is so true. lol

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LOL, yeah I put that in their for your benefit so I wondered if you'd pick up on it. I just like to interject some humor into the stuff when writers state the obvious. That's just my bad self goofing around. :lol-032: