Jerry Angelo Has a Lot of Kids
As the saga of Brian Urlacher's contract situation goes on at Halas Hall, Jerry Angelo spoke with the media yesterday about the NFL draft, but as was expected, he also had to deal with a lot of questions about Urlacher.
Angelo said that the Bears don't "negotiate through the media" and then went on to negotiate through the media. Basically, Jerry came out and said he doesn't care what Urlacher wants, he's not going to get any sweeter an offer than the one the Bears already made to him.
"You're not going to have one big happy family," Angelo said. "You who have kids and raise families understand it doesn't happen in your homes, and it certainly isn't going to happen at Halas Hall when you have 53 kids and we have to make every one of them happy. It's just not reality."While I understand what Angelo is trying to say here, to try and say that Urlacher is just another player on the team seems a bit ridiculous. Urlacher's been the best player on the team since he was drafted in 2000 (well, maybe not the last two seasons with Lance Briggs). It's not exactly a crazy idea to give the best player on the team some special treatment, as it happens pretty often throughout the league.
"Fifty-three people want to be treated special. How in the heck would we be able to run a business if we acquiesce to every situation from every player when they come to us? It's just not practical."
Frankly, treating Urlacher the same way as the 53rd man on the roster is idiotic.
Still, I understand where Angelo is coming from here, and where the Bears are coming from as a whole. Nobody in the organization forced Urlacher to sign that 9-year deal back in 2003, though when he did, it was one of the biggest contracts in the history of the league for a defensive player.
If Brian didn't realize then that signing a 9-year deal meant that at some point the salary structure would become outdated, that's his fault. Just about any fan who follows football closely knew it would happen, so how could he not? Did he sign the thing thinking that the Bears would just bend to his will when he felt the contract wasn't valuable enough anymore?
If that's the case, Brian took a measured risk, and considering the Bears history of paying their players, it was a dumb risk to take. One he's truly paying the price for now.
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3 comments:
I usually despise everything the Bears management has said in the past, but I agree 100% with Angelo. You left out some of his best quotes. Urlacher is a big boy. He signed a big boy contract in '03. All the fault is on Urlacher. Sorry. No love for him. I don't care how great he has been. He got paid then for it and he is getting paid now for it.
I agree that Urlacher made his bed, and now he has to lay in it. however, I don't think Briggs is better than him, even last year. Briggs is much more a product of the system than any player we have. That is why no one was offering him anything worthwhile...so he signed with the team that has had him since the beginning. When Urlacher becomes a free-agent, he won't be able to ask for a ton because he'll be past his prime, so he's trying to hedge his bet, but no one is biting.
Angelo also said that they tell their players and agents not to sign the contract unless they are happy with it. So what's changed to make Urlacher unhappy now? The salary cap has gone up, and so have the salaries around him. If he or his agent didn't know this was going to happen, then they're both idiots. That being said, I still think he deserves to be paid, but he has an arthritic back and he just had surgery on his neck. Let's see how he does this season and maybe renegotiate next year.
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