2009 Chicago Bears offseason

[jersey cubs fan]

Well, the missing of time is your own personal fault and an issue to take up with the judge. You made yourself unavailable, the NFL still has the opportunity to make itself unavailable to you.

 

Obviously they have the right to do it. I'm just not sure they should. Clearly the league agrees with you, though.

 

So the NFL should not have the right to suspend players who commit serious violations of the law? The NFLPA would disagree with you.

[Guest]

But if Plax was jailed for a year, I'd feel the same way. Yes, he's not being "punished" by the league, but the effect is the same.

 

Vick had to miss playing in the NFL the entire time he was gone...no credit for "time served"?

 

Why should there be? He committed a crime that the legal system deemed punishable with significant time in prison. The NFL had no say in that matter. I don't see the reasoning for saying guys who don't get jail time should be suspended but guys who do get jail time should not.

 

Missing time and not getting paid is already a pretty hefty fine, considering an NFL career is pretty short to begin with. In Vick's case, it cost him a large fortune as well. If the NFL is now going to give him a suspension that covers this coming season, his career is probably basically over.

 

I don't know if there was much hope for him to come back after missing the last 2 (or is it 3 now?) seasons.

 

Guess that will go down as a hard lesson to all the youngsters out there.

 

Well, the missing of time is your own personal fault and an issue to take up with the judge. You made yourself unavailable, the NFL still has the opportunity to make itself unavailable to you.

 

Yeah, I'm not disagreeing with you. And this is probably actually good for the future of the league as well, because I sure get tired of reading about the Michael Vick's, Dante Stallworth's, Pacman Jones' of the world.

[Banedon]

Well, the missing of time is your own personal fault and an issue to take up with the judge. You made yourself unavailable, the NFL still has the opportunity to make itself unavailable to you.

 

Obviously they have the right to do it. I'm just not sure they should. Clearly the league agrees with you, though.

 

So the NFL should not have the right to suspend players who commit serious violations of the law? The NFLPA would disagree with you.

 

Sorry, that was pretty poor wording on my part. They have the right, and I have no problem with them having that right. In this particular instance, with Vick having already been in jail for a lengthy amount of time, I'm not sure there's a lot of justice being served by further preventing him from resuming his career.

 

I wasn't meaning that they shouldn't have that right...I just don't necessarily think they should be exercising that right in this case.

[CubColtPacer]

Well, the missing of time is your own personal fault and an issue to take up with the judge. You made yourself unavailable, the NFL still has the opportunity to make itself unavailable to you.

 

Obviously they have the right to do it. I'm just not sure they should. Clearly the league agrees with you, though.

 

So the NFL should not have the right to suspend players who commit serious violations of the law? The NFLPA would disagree with you.

 

Sorry, that was pretty poor wording on my part. They have the right, and I have no problem with them having that right. In this particular instance, with Vick having already been in jail for a lengthy amount of time, I'm not sure there's a lot of justice being served by further preventing him from resuming his career.

 

I wasn't meaning that they shouldn't have that right...I just don't necessarily think they should be exercising that right in this case.

 

It might not be justice to Vick. I'm not sure how to accurately assess that question.

 

However, the league has its own interests to protect. In this instance, that might mean keeping Vick out of the league if it's fair or not. It's far riskier to the NFL's future profits to reinstate him..a much bigger chance for prolonged outrage and distraction that way than if they just keep him away.

[Guest]

Considering the physical conditioning an NFL player must go through to stay on top of their game, I was going to be real curious to see whether Vick had what it took to make it back after missing the time he already has. I was skeptical that he would be an impact player, but I guess we won't be finding out any time soon.

 

My guess is that his career was over after missing the time he already has. If he misses another season, it looks like he'll have to look for a new line of work.

[Soul]

Goodell has shown many times he's going to bring down a heavy hammer on these guys, so I'm not surprised. I don't know what's right or not, but I do know that any player who thinks he's going to get any kind of deference from this commissioner better think twice.

[jersey cubs fan]

Considering the physical conditioning an NFL player must go through to stay on top of their game, I was going to be real curious to see whether Vick had what it took to make it back after missing the time he already has. I was skeptical that he would be an impact player, but I guess we won't be finding out any time soon.

 

My guess is that his career was over after missing the time he already has. If he misses another season, it looks like he'll have to look for a new line of work.

 

I think time in prison is probably much worse for his physical state than time out of prison but on suspension. He's 29. If he's suspended for all of this year, he'll be 30 at the start of his first training camp back in action. He'll have missed 3 seasons, but he'll have had over a year to train with any and every piece of equipment and nutritional options he could like, as well as a chance to play in Canada if he wants.

 

If time away was going to ruin him, it was the time he spent in prison, not a year on suspension. With time to get in peak physical condition and a lack of physical wear and tear from playing the past couple seasons, he could come back and play for 5 years.

 

He can choose to live like a victim of unfair treatment if he wants, but it's not going to do any good.

[rawaction]

Wasn't Vick already suspended indefinitely by the NFL?

[Banedon]

Wasn't Vick already suspended indefinitely by the NFL?

 

Yes...he would need to be "reinstated"...which apparently Goodell is not inclined to do.

[jersey cubs fan]

Wasn't Vick already suspended indefinitely by the NFL?

 

He was indefinitely suspended after the guilty plea and that means he basically has to plead his case to the commish to be reinstated.

[Banedon]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/9751140/Summer-two-a-days:-AFC-South,-NFC-North

 

In games in which the Denver defense gave up less than 21 points over the past three seasons, Jay Cutler went 13-1 as the team's starting quarterback. That one loss came in a crazy OT loss to Brett Favre and the Packers on Monday Night Football.

[Soul]

Plans to go to TC confirmed. I'll be there from 8/1 - 8/3. The plan is to let the masses go for the Cutler autographs, while I secure a good spot to watch practice from :)

[Butterscup1679666578]

I had a dream last night that Cutler went 9/9 for 129 yards and 2 TDs on the first two drives of the opening game vs. GB.

 

I swear I'm not hyping him up too much ;)

[Banedon]

I had a dream last night that Cutler went 9/9 for 129 yards and 2 TDs on the first two drives of the opening game vs. GB.

 

I swear I'm not hyping him up too much ;)

 

My wife thinks I'm in for disappointment...cuz she thinks there's no way he can live up to my expectations.

[Butterscup1679666578]

I had a dream last night that Cutler went 9/9 for 129 yards and 2 TDs on the first two drives of the opening game vs. GB.

 

I swear I'm not hyping him up too much ;)

 

My wife thinks I'm in for disappointment...cuz she thinks there's no way he can live up to my expectations.

 

Yeah one of my good friends keeps saying that there's no way he can live up to the hype.

 

I honestly don't know what to expect, because I've never seen a QB with a real arm in a Bears uniform before. All I know is I'm excited.

[Soul]

I had a dream last night that Cutler went 9/9 for 129 yards and 2 TDs on the first two drives of the opening game vs. GB.

 

I swear I'm not hyping him up too much ;)

 

My wife thinks I'm in for disappointment...cuz she thinks there's no way he can live up to my expectations.

 

How can he possibly meet Bears' fans expectations? They think he's going to show up and shoot lightning bolts out of his ass. The first time he throws a bad pick all that love is going to turn to disappointment. It's bound to happen.

[jersey cubs fan]

I had a dream last night that Cutler went 9/9 for 129 yards and 2 TDs on the first two drives of the opening game vs. GB.

 

I swear I'm not hyping him up too much ;)

 

My wife thinks I'm in for disappointment...cuz she thinks there's no way he can live up to my expectations.

 

Tell her that just because your marriage didn't live up to your expectations doesn't mean Jay will do the same.

[jersey cubs fan]

I had a dream last night that Cutler went 9/9 for 129 yards and 2 TDs on the first two drives of the opening game vs. GB.

 

I swear I'm not hyping him up too much ;)

 

My wife thinks I'm in for disappointment...cuz she thinks there's no way he can live up to my expectations.

 

How can he possibly meet Bears' fans expectations? They think he's going to show up and shoot lightning bolts out of his ass. The first time he throws a bad pick all that love is going to turn to disappointment. It's bound to happen.

 

I don't know how you can say this when I've heard so many mixed feelings on the Cutler situation. Lots of Bears fans are concerned about his diebetes, w-l record in Denver, attitude issues that led to him leaving Denver and the lack of receivers in Chicago, so much so that there's nowhere near consensus belief that he'll be amazing.

[Soul]

I had a dream last night that Cutler went 9/9 for 129 yards and 2 TDs on the first two drives of the opening game vs. GB.

 

I swear I'm not hyping him up too much ;)

 

My wife thinks I'm in for disappointment...cuz she thinks there's no way he can live up to my expectations.

 

How can he possibly meet Bears' fans expectations? They think he's going to show up and shoot lightning bolts out of his ass. The first time he throws a bad pick all that love is going to turn to disappointment. It's bound to happen.

 

I don't know how you can say this when I've heard so many mixed feelings on the Cutler situation. Lots of Bears fans are concerned about his diebetes, w-l record in Denver, attitude issues that led to him leaving Denver and the lack of receivers in Chicago, so much so that there's nowhere near consensus belief that he'll be amazing.

 

None of that means the expectations aren't still insanely high.

[jersey cubs fan]

 

How can he possibly meet Bears' fans expectations? They think he's going to show up and shoot lightning bolts out of his ass. The first time he throws a bad pick all that love is going to turn to disappointment. It's bound to happen.

 

I don't know how you can say this when I've heard so many mixed feelings on the Cutler situation. Lots of Bears fans are concerned about his diebetes, w-l record in Denver, attitude issues that led to him leaving Denver and the lack of receivers in Chicago, so much so that there's nowhere near consensus belief that he'll be amazing.

 

None of that means the expectations aren't still insanely high.

 

If there is not a consensus belief that performance will be amazing how can expectations be high? All of what I said is an indication that expectations aren't insanely high. Sure, some individuals may have insanely high expectations, but Bears fans, if they can be classified as one, don't have those expectations. I would say they are generally high, but not insane by any stretch. People expect better performance than Orton and Grossman and therefore a better record, and they should expect that.

[Soul]

 

How can he possibly meet Bears' fans expectations? They think he's going to show up and shoot lightning bolts out of his ass. The first time he throws a bad pick all that love is going to turn to disappointment. It's bound to happen.

 

I don't know how you can say this when I've heard so many mixed feelings on the Cutler situation. Lots of Bears fans are concerned about his diebetes, w-l record in Denver, attitude issues that led to him leaving Denver and the lack of receivers in Chicago, so much so that there's nowhere near consensus belief that he'll be amazing.

 

None of that means the expectations aren't still insanely high.

 

If there is not a consensus belief that performance will be amazing how can expectations be high? All of what I said is an indication that expectations aren't insanely high. Sure, some individuals may have insanely high expectations, but Bears fans, if they can be classified as one, don't have those expectations. I would say they are generally high, but not insane by any stretch. People expect better performance than Orton and Grossman and therefore a better record, and they should expect that.

I think you're injecting your own, more reasonable, understanding of the situation on to Bear fans as a whole.

[jersey cubs fan]

 

How can he possibly meet Bears' fans expectations? They think he's going to show up and shoot lightning bolts out of his ass. The first time he throws a bad pick all that love is going to turn to disappointment. It's bound to happen.

 

I don't know how you can say this when I've heard so many mixed feelings on the Cutler situation. Lots of Bears fans are concerned about his diebetes, w-l record in Denver, attitude issues that led to him leaving Denver and the lack of receivers in Chicago, so much so that there's nowhere near consensus belief that he'll be amazing.

 

None of that means the expectations aren't still insanely high.

 

If there is not a consensus belief that performance will be amazing how can expectations be high? All of what I said is an indication that expectations aren't insanely high. Sure, some individuals may have insanely high expectations, but Bears fans, if they can be classified as one, don't have those expectations. I would say they are generally high, but not insane by any stretch. People expect better performance than Orton and Grossman and therefore a better record, and they should expect that.

I think you're injecting your own, more reasonable, understanding of the situation on to Bear fans as a whole.

 

I think you are injecting a few cases of overzealous expectations onto the entire group of Bears fans. I have high expectations. I have friends and family who I consider to be a fairly decent subset of Bears fans who represent varying levels of that expectation. The vast majority of people I have spoken to about this are much less excited than I am. They don't have anywhere close to insanely high expectations. Some "more casual" fans think it's great they have a real QB, but they don't know anything about him and don't really have any expectations, other than fewer ducks. The season ticket holder crowd I know is more or less expecting mediocrity, a 7-9 or 8-8 season in which Cutler won't be able to do a damn thing to help the weak WR group and porous defense.

 

I honestly don't see how anybody can say there are widespread insanely high expectations for Cutler and the Bears.

[Soul]

Well, good old Banedon is one example on my side :)

[Banedon]

Well, good old Banedon is one example on my side :)

 

Only if he falls short of "Best Quarterback to ever play the game". Which is a title that I'm pretty sure is in the bag at this point.

 

 

In all seriousness, I just expect him to be better than every Bears quarterback that I've ever watched play the game. I don't think that's unreasonable expectations.

[David]

http://www.authorizedevents.com/SuperBowl_XLIV_Logo.gif

 

 

It's a sign