The Bears Offseason Thread

[BigSlick]

I don't like that the key to this team (the defense) has a bunch of unhappy people. I think you gotta worry about the unit as a whole if Briggs doesn't play, Urlacher is upset over the way Briggs has been treated, Alex wants out, Vasher wants paid, Tank and Dusty are coming off injuries.

 

Yeah, the level of discontent is starting to concern me a little bit.

 

Blah blah blah, the Bears need to keep pace with certain teams, need to run the team under the cap, and in order to do so they have to be a little rude to some players. Its called reality.

 

This wont affect play. In fact, I can't ever remember the first time that "discontent" has ever truly effected anything. The effect that T.O. has ever had on a team has been completely overstated. They are professional athletes, they'll play.

[BigSlick]

This looks like Alex isn't really mad at the Bears...just seeing if there's another situation that fits better. He says he'd like to spend the rest of his career with the Bears, but it sounds like the Bears don't want to promise that right now...

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=208794

 

i don't care. the bears overpaid him in the first place based on 2 or 3 games. he should feel lucky that he's starting, i doubt anyone would give us anything for him.

 

Is he playing the Giants this year? No? Oh, so he wont have his usual 4 sack game against them?

[jersey cubs fan]

This looks like Alex isn't really mad at the Bears...just seeing if there's another situation that fits better. He says he'd like to spend the rest of his career with the Bears, but it sounds like the Bears don't want to promise that right now...

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=208794

 

i don't care. the bears overpaid him in the first place based on 2 or 3 games. he should feel lucky that he's starting, i doubt anyone would give us anything for him.

 

Is he playing the Giants this year? No? Oh, so he wont have his usual 4 sack game against them?

 

The Bears are playing the Giants.

 

 

This story pisses me off. He's got 3 years on a contract and he's looking to get an extension or find a trade? I completely understand doing this stuff with 1 year remaining, but this is just nonsense. He's basically trying to be a free agent, getting permission to talk to every team so he can find one that will overpay him and give the Bears something in return.

 

This can't sit well with Angelo.

[Derwood]

This looks like Alex isn't really mad at the Bears...just seeing if there's another situation that fits better. He says he'd like to spend the rest of his career with the Bears, but it sounds like the Bears don't want to promise that right now...

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=208794

 

i don't care. the bears overpaid him in the first place based on 2 or 3 games. he should feel lucky that he's starting, i doubt anyone would give us anything for him.

 

Is he playing the Giants this year? No? Oh, so he wont have his usual 4 sack game against them?

 

The Bears are playing the Giants.

 

 

This story pisses me off. He's got 3 years on a contract and he's looking to get an extension or find a trade? I completely understand doing this stuff with 1 year remaining, but this is just nonsense. He's basically trying to be a free agent, getting permission to talk to every team so he can find one that will overpay him and give the Bears something in return.

 

This can't sit well with Angelo.

 

the NFL salary system is so broken that players will constantly pull this kind of crap

[jersey cubs fan]

the NFL salary system is so broken that players will constantly pull this kind of crap

 

The NFL salary system is the best in sports, by an extremely wide margin.

 

It's not very often that guys pull this with 3 years remaining on a deal. Occasionally you'll get a former superstar like Ray Lewis who is trying to negotiate one last signing bonus early.

[C.C.]

the NFL salary system is so broken that players will constantly pull this kind of crap

 

The NFL salary system is the best in sports, by an extremely wide margin.

 

It's not very often that guys pull this with 3 years remaining on a deal. Occasionally you'll get a former superstar like Ray Lewis who is trying to negotiate one last signing bonus early.

 

If you're an NFL owner yes.

[jersey cubs fan]

the NFL salary system is so broken that players will constantly pull this kind of crap

 

The NFL salary system is the best in sports, by an extremely wide margin.

 

It's not very often that guys pull this with 3 years remaining on a deal. Occasionally you'll get a former superstar like Ray Lewis who is trying to negotiate one last signing bonus early.

 

If you're an NFL owner yes.

 

It's the easiest sport to make huge up front money as a rookie. No other sports allows you to make as much money as soon as they do. The best players get paid the most. It's the fairest system for all.

 

Baseball requires 3 years of service at minimum wage before you even sniff arbitration, and 6 years before free agency. NBA has slotted contracts that don't stack up to NFL contracts, and then it's filled with a bunch of guys making a ton of guaranteed money who aren't any good.

 

Every sports fan complains about athletes who get paid a lot when they aren't any good anymore, yet the NFL actually has a system that takes care of that problem and people pretend it's unfair to the player.

[Derwood]

the NFL salary system is so broken that players will constantly pull this kind of crap

 

The NFL salary system is the best in sports, by an extremely wide margin.

 

It's not very often that guys pull this with 3 years remaining on a deal. Occasionally you'll get a former superstar like Ray Lewis who is trying to negotiate one last signing bonus early.

 

If you're an NFL owner yes.

 

It's the easiest sport to make huge up front money as a rookie. No other sports allows you to make as much money as soon as they do. The best players get paid the most. It's the fairest system for all.

 

Baseball requires 3 years of service at minimum wage before you even sniff arbitration, and 6 years before free agency. NBA has slotted contracts that don't stack up to NFL contracts, and then it's filled with a bunch of guys making a ton of guaranteed money who aren't any good.

 

Every sports fan complains about athletes who get paid a lot when they aren't any good anymore, yet the NFL actually has a system that takes care of that problem and people pretend it's unfair to the player.

 

The NBA rookie salary system is way better than the NFL. It completely eliminates players holding out through training camp and demanding huge salaries before every playing a second of pro ball.

 

Non-guaranteed contracts might protect owners, but they become complete jokes from the player side of the argument. Every player now wants huge signing bonuses because the rest of the deal can be cancelled at the whim of the owner.

 

The salary cap is also extremely complicated and difficult to manage. Yes, the NBA has fewer players per team, but as a GM (and even as a fan) it's very easy to track ahead and see what your team's options are year to year.

[Derwood]

and what's the difference between Mike Hampton making guaranteed money every year but always being hurt and someone in the NFL making all the money up front and then being cut for being hurt too much? Either way they are getting paid a ton to not play

[jersey cubs fan]

Non-guaranteed contracts might protect owners, but they become complete jokes from the player side of the argument. Every player now wants huge signing bonuses because the rest of the deal can be cancelled at the whim of the owner.

 

This is such a one sided blind view of the story. Owners can't just cut on a whim. If they do, most players are just going to sign another bigger deal. The only guys who might lose out in this system are the guys that aren't worth what they are being paid. Being cut in the NFL is not necessarily a bad thing. You can get cut by one team and sign an even bigger deal with another, as long as you are good.

[Derwood]

Non-guaranteed contracts might protect owners, but they become complete jokes from the player side of the argument. Every player now wants huge signing bonuses because the rest of the deal can be cancelled at the whim of the owner.

 

This is such a one sided blind view of the story. Owners can't just cut on a whim. If they do, most players are just going to sign another bigger deal. The only guys who might lose out in this system are the guys that aren't worth what they are being paid. Being cut in the NFL is not necessarily a bad thing. You can get cut by one team and sign an even bigger deal with another, as long as you are good.

 

But why should a player have to go through that? why sign a 7 year deal if you're going to get cut after 2?

[CubColtPacer]

the NFL salary system is so broken that players will constantly pull this kind of crap

 

The NFL salary system is the best in sports, by an extremely wide margin.

 

It's not very often that guys pull this with 3 years remaining on a deal. Occasionally you'll get a former superstar like Ray Lewis who is trying to negotiate one last signing bonus early.

 

If you're an NFL owner yes.

 

It's the easiest sport to make huge up front money as a rookie. No other sports allows you to make as much money as soon as they do. The best players get paid the most. It's the fairest system for all.

 

Baseball requires 3 years of service at minimum wage before you even sniff arbitration, and 6 years before free agency. NBA has slotted contracts that don't stack up to NFL contracts, and then it's filled with a bunch of guys making a ton of guaranteed money who aren't any good.

 

Every sports fan complains about athletes who get paid a lot when they aren't any good anymore, yet the NFL actually has a system that takes care of that problem and people pretend it's unfair to the player.

 

Your first paragraph says most of it. The top of the draft NFL players make a ton of money, and most of them don't deserve it. These players at the top of the draft are making the same money or sometimes better money than the superstars of the league, and they haven't proven a thing. So instead of getting a bunch of veterans making money they don't deserve, you have a bunch of players in their first 3-4 years in the league making money that they often fail to live up to. The NBA rewards rookies fairly, and then lets the teams decide after a proper evaluation period (3-4 years) how much they want to pay them. They also can keep accurate salary cap info and don't have all this GM as accountant business where money is deferred everywhere and nobody ever knows for sure how much money their team has left.

One more thing-productive players who are on the downside of their career and are fan favorites have to be cut for cap reasons-the NBA is much more fair on that by allowing you to keep your players above the cap, but simply not allowing you to sign any new players beyond certain exceptions.

I like the NFL system, but I don't think it's the best, and it definitely has its issues.

Edited May 17, 2007 by CubColtPacer

[Chocolate Milk]

The Alex Brown stuff is wierd.

[Banedon]

The Alex Brown stuff is wierd.

 

You mean "I love the Bears, and want to finish my career here, so I'm seeking a trade" doesn't make total sense to you?

[Derwood]

The Alex Brown stuff is wierd.

 

You mean "I love the Bears, and want to finish my career here, so I'm seeking a trade" doesn't make total sense to you?

 

 

this points to another problem with the NFL salary system, which is it fosters a complete lack of team loyalty (on both sides of the equation) with owners constantly cutting vets to try to get cheaper production and players constantly chasing the next big paycheck

[Chocolate Milk]

The Alex Brown stuff is wierd.

 

You mean "I love the Bears, and want to finish my career here, so I'm seeking a trade" doesn't make total sense to you?

 

Sounds like he just wants to live somewhere else.

[jersey cubs fan]

Non-guaranteed contracts might protect owners, but they become complete jokes from the player side of the argument. Every player now wants huge signing bonuses because the rest of the deal can be cancelled at the whim of the owner.

 

This is such a one sided blind view of the story. Owners can't just cut on a whim. If they do, most players are just going to sign another bigger deal. The only guys who might lose out in this system are the guys that aren't worth what they are being paid. Being cut in the NFL is not necessarily a bad thing. You can get cut by one team and sign an even bigger deal with another, as long as you are good.

 

But why should a player have to go through that? why sign a 7 year deal if you're going to get cut after 2?

 

Go through what? Free agency? Players love free agency. What are they going through? They should "have to go through that" because the concept of a 7-year contract in anything is absolutely ridiculous. The NFL is a meritocracy, unlike baseball, which is a ageitocracy, or the NBA, which is a hypeitocracy. The fact of the matter is if you play well in the NFL, you get paid. Guys like Lance Briggs choose to gamble and wait for an even bigger payday, and I say good for them. But don't come crying about unfairness in the contract structure. These guys aren't "going through" anything unfair. Even though contracts aren't guaranteed, the fact is owners can't just cut anybody whenever they want, competition from the other teams would destroy them. We're talking about a 52 man roster in a sport that plays 16 regular season games a year, that's twice as many players as baseball and more than 3 times as many as the NBA, and 10% and 19% of the number of games, yet there's still plenty of room for 20-30 guys per team to make millions every year and the sport is run in such a way that unlike the NBA and MLB, they've had no work stoppages or threat of a work stoppage for two decades, plus they have had nothing but constant growth. The pie just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

[Banedon]

The Alex Brown stuff is wierd.

 

You mean "I love the Bears, and want to finish my career here, so I'm seeking a trade" doesn't make total sense to you?

 

 

this points to another problem with the NFL salary system, which is it fosters a complete lack of team loyalty (on both sides of the equation) with owners constantly cutting vets to try to get cheaper production and players constantly chasing the next big paycheck

 

Um...isn't that an overall problem with corporate America? I know my company goes through hiring freezes, cost cutting periods where people with high salaries are evaluated to determine if they're worth their paycheck, and if not, either laid off or moved to another area where they can earn the amount of money they're making. Meanwhile every employee in this place is always looking for either a raise or a new job that includes a raise.

 

I'm not sure how any system prevents that from occuring. Players will always be overpaid or underpaid. Happens every time.

[jersey cubs fan]

The Alex Brown stuff is wierd.

 

You mean "I love the Bears, and want to finish my career here, so I'm seeking a trade" doesn't make total sense to you?

 

 

this points to another problem with the NFL salary system, which is it fosters a complete lack of team loyalty (on both sides of the equation) with owners constantly cutting vets to try to get cheaper production and players constantly chasing the next big paycheck

 

Unlike the MLB and NBA that's all about team loyalty. There's nobody in the NBA who purposefully tanks a season so they can leave and go somewhere else. Yeah, that's a great system.

[Derwood]

Non-guaranteed contracts might protect owners, but they become complete jokes from the player side of the argument. Every player now wants huge signing bonuses because the rest of the deal can be cancelled at the whim of the owner.

 

This is such a one sided blind view of the story. Owners can't just cut on a whim. If they do, most players are just going to sign another bigger deal. The only guys who might lose out in this system are the guys that aren't worth what they are being paid. Being cut in the NFL is not necessarily a bad thing. You can get cut by one team and sign an even bigger deal with another, as long as you are good.

 

But why should a player have to go through that? why sign a 7 year deal if you're going to get cut after 2?

 

Go through what? Free agency? Players love free agency. What are they going through? They should "have to go through that" because the concept of a 7-year contract in anything is absolutely ridiculous. The NFL is a meritocracy, unlike baseball, which is a ageitocracy, or the NBA, which is a hypeitocracy. The fact of the matter is if you play well in the NFL, you get paid. Guys like Lance Briggs choose to gamble and wait for an even bigger payday, and I say good for them. But don't come crying about unfairness in the contract structure. These guys aren't "going through" anything unfair. Even though contracts aren't guaranteed, the fact is owners can't just cut anybody whenever they want, competition from the other teams would destroy them. We're talking about a 52 man roster in a sport that plays 16 regular season games a year, that's twice as many players as baseball and more than 3 times as many as the NBA, and 10% and 19% of the number of games, yet there's still plenty of room for 20-30 guys per team to make millions every year and the sport is run in such a way that unlike the NBA and MLB, they've had no work stoppages or threat of a work stoppage for two decades, plus they have had nothing but constant growth. The pie just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

 

then why not just have all 1-year contracts in the NFL and let every player renegotiate every year?

[Derwood]

The Alex Brown stuff is wierd.

 

You mean "I love the Bears, and want to finish my career here, so I'm seeking a trade" doesn't make total sense to you?

 

 

this points to another problem with the NFL salary system, which is it fosters a complete lack of team loyalty (on both sides of the equation) with owners constantly cutting vets to try to get cheaper production and players constantly chasing the next big paycheck

 

Unlike the MLB and NBA that's all about team loyalty. There's nobody in the NBA who purposefully tanks a season so they can leave and go somewhere else. Yeah, that's a great system.

 

name me the last player in the NBA who tanked a season to go somewhere else

[jersey cubs fan]

The Alex Brown stuff is wierd.

 

You mean "I love the Bears, and want to finish my career here, so I'm seeking a trade" doesn't make total sense to you?

 

 

this points to another problem with the NFL salary system, which is it fosters a complete lack of team loyalty (on both sides of the equation) with owners constantly cutting vets to try to get cheaper production and players constantly chasing the next big paycheck

 

Unlike the MLB and NBA that's all about team loyalty. There's nobody in the NBA who purposefully tanks a season so they can leave and go somewhere else. Yeah, that's a great system.

 

name me the last player in the NBA who tanked a season to go somewhere else

 

Chris Webber.

[Derwood]

The Alex Brown stuff is wierd.

 

You mean "I love the Bears, and want to finish my career here, so I'm seeking a trade" doesn't make total sense to you?

 

 

this points to another problem with the NFL salary system, which is it fosters a complete lack of team loyalty (on both sides of the equation) with owners constantly cutting vets to try to get cheaper production and players constantly chasing the next big paycheck

 

Unlike the MLB and NBA that's all about team loyalty. There's nobody in the NBA who purposefully tanks a season so they can leave and go somewhere else. Yeah, that's a great system.

 

name me the last player in the NBA who tanked a season to go somewhere else

 

Chris Webber.

 

okay, so that's one guy. it's hardly an epidemic. more often than not, money is a non-factor among the egos in the NBA since the contracts all line up pretty well

[jersey cubs fan]

okay, so that's one guy. it's hardly an epidemic. more often than not, money is a non-factor among the egos in the NBA since the contracts all line up pretty well

 

That's funny.

 

 

How about the guy who played for the Bulls part-time last year and then got traded to Phoenix? What about Vince Carter tanking in Toronto? It happens all the time.

[Derwood]

okay, so that's one guy. it's hardly an epidemic. more often than not, money is a non-factor among the egos in the NBA since the contracts all line up pretty well

 

That's funny.

 

 

How about the guy who played for the Bulls part-time last year and then got traded to Phoenix? What about Vince Carter tanking in Toronto? It happens all the time.

 

Carter tanking in Toronto got him traded, but it didn't get him a new contract