Urlacher Vs. The Bears, Whose Your Money On?
by Adam T on May 14, 2008 7:59 AM CDT
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PrintRecently I found I've been trying to figure out just whose side I'm on in this whole deal with the Bears and Brian Urlacher's new contract demands, so I thought I would list out each side and see where it stands. If you have some that I missed let me know and we can add them to the list.
Pro-Urlacher
1) Brian Urlacher, even injured, is still one of the better line backers in this league. Healthy it is hard to say he isn't the best. He is the prototype linebacker for running any form of the Cover-2. Shouldn't he deserve to be paid as a top 3 linebacker?
2) Lance Briggs just got paid. Tommie Harris is going to break the bank and PK Robbie Gould just signed the richest deal ever shelled out to a kicker. Shouldn't the face of the franchise be taken care of?
3) The doctors say Urlachers is 100% healthy. That should not be used as a factor in deciding how much he is worth.
4) The salary cap has risen substantially since he signed his deal. It was 75 million when he signed and 116 now. Surely they have enough room to offer him something.
Pro-Bears
1) Bears management and coaching staff believe this team still can contend, so long as they take care of the import pieces that need taken care of. See Harris, Gould and Hester. Right now they don't need to be dealing with a guy who still has 4 years left on his contract.
2) Urlacher signed a 9 year deal. His agent and he knew that the salary cap would be higher moving into the future. If they wanted to cash in again they should have worked a smaller 5 year deal and they revisit the contract in the offseason.
3) Urlacher has 4 years left on the deal. Why should they Bears have to rework his deal so soon?
4) Regardless of what doctors say, until Urlacher goes through a full season of grinding and being hit, with no ill affects from his injuries you never know how he will hold up.
5) The Bears offered him an additional year to his current contract. The extension would have contained an additional 5 million up front, an additional 1 million for the next 4 years and the extended 5th year would have paid him a base pay of 9 million. That sounds like a fair deal.
Strictly by the numbers it looks and feels like the Bears are in the right here. I am not saying that Urlacher shouldn't be allowed to ask for a raise or even that he doesn't deserve it, but the one thing Bears management has been able to do is win the public perception vote. They took a hit during the Lovie Smith contract situation, but that was only because Smith outplayed them by keeping quite, but overall the players who want more from the Bears always tend to look like whiny brats.
The Bears have issues like their inability to properly handle our QB situation or their unwillingness to let go of an offensive coordinator who isn't very good, but the one overriding thing they always do well is take care of their own so long as the money is there and they player isn't asking for more than he is worth.
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I'm with the Bears on this one
I think that any time a pro athlete demands more money from his team, unless he’s considered vastly underpaid, most fans will be against him. I’m not saying Urlacher doesn’t deserve a little more money, but like WCG points out, Urlacher and his agent signed a 9-year deal knowing the cap would go up, so they made their own bed.
Official Windy City Gridiron Contributor
by Doctor Chicago on May 14, 2008 11:33 AM CDT reply actions
There is a time and place for everything
he knows they are actively trying to sign at the time three very important players. He could have just wait until they were done, then bring up the topic behind closed doors. I am sure they would have worked with him.
Being Who You Thought We Were Since 2005!
Maybe he's been doing it "quietly" for a couple of years.
Probably not, but isn’t that the point of being “quiet”—that we don’t know?
Maybe they had a handshake deal from last year “I’ll play the fence and say the right things regarding Lance Briggs, but next summer, you take care of me.”
Again, probably not, but that’s kind of my point. Why take sides when we don’t know the whole story? And probably can’t.
I guess that’s part of being a fan, though. I’m more interested in the product on the field (and how these matters relate to that) than all the drama. I guess getting caught up in the drama is sort of the sports guy’s equivalent of worrying about when Asthon and Demi are getting married. Something like that.
It is not so much taking sides as
who is the one who takes the hit from a public perception. Right now the Bears don’t take any knocks, because Urlacher has years left and it going after money they need to sign important pieces.
Urlacher on the other hand is whining because he doesn’t like the deal he signed and now is taking his ball and going home. If he wants to be all out and public about it then speak up if you have been asking for a few years. I don’t think it would change anything if he started asking 3 years ago, it means he wanted more money 2 years after he signed his deal. That would look even worse.
Being Who You Thought We Were Since 2005!
Especially since he was the highest paid linebacker when he signed the deal.
He had so much dough from the signing bonus in his pocket he better not be complaining for a while.
Kick it to me... I'm open!
That's my point.
WTF cares? Do you think he won’t perform on the field if he misses camp? Or he’ll be a clubhouse disruption that will negatively effect the team? Urlacher won’t. No.
It’s just creating a soap opera. It’s like reading People or Us Magazines.
I gotta Say...
I am with the Bears on this one. The agent should have worked something in the deal so that it went up enough over the length of the contract to be fair. They still need to sign other players …. although… knowing that the cap might go up they might be best to sign him a new deal now as in 3 years, it will most likely be for more money. Although, I would suggest signing all the other pegs first, let their camp know that they haven’t forgotten, then go back and talk a new deal.
Urlacher
like every other pro fooball player, has no leverage under the current CBA. If he holds out, he doesn’t get paid.
The Bears made a gesture to Urlacher of some extra money. If that doesn’t appease him, he’ll lose the battle of public opinion, for what that’s worth (which, for Urlacher, is a lot, since he could do endorsements til he’s 60 he he stays in the fan’s good graces).
DEJESUS!!!
Hm I am think I side with the Bears here
In the end they should win out anyway; Urlacher won’t want to miss anything mandatory and risk getting fined, he knows he’s under contract for four more years and has no leverage. What’s wrong with having to come in and play to prove to everyone that you can stay healthy and all the injury concerns are behind you. As a team leader he should just wait until next year to get paid after future franchise cornerstones like Harris and Hester.
by Sam Householder on May 14, 2008 10:25 PM CDT reply actions
...and again
This is the same guy that talked about taking a pay cut to keep Briggs around no? If there was ever a wrong team in the wrong city to pull this kind of shenanigans, it’s this team and this city.
urlacher
the face of the bears, who for 8 years has been the only consistant thing they have had, deserves to be paid like the player he is…and an average of 5 million per for the next 4 years, in the football world, is not cutting it…A player of his caliber is making around 10 million per….so pay him accordingly, because you know if he was really hurt or played like crap the would cut him soo fast it would make your head spin.
You would be a terrible business owner.
Brian got payed the big money already. The Bears have no problem paying their players. Today Brian may be falling apart. If you didn’t see how slow and easily blocked he was for the first half of the season, you should open your eyes. If Brian didn’t play lights out in the last 5 games to make his season look more like a typical year, we would all be saying his career is over.
The truth is, no one knows if the guy is going to ever be healthy again. That is the reason he is asking for the money. He doesn’t know either and he is scared he’s finished. If he would have just gone out this season and showed he was healthy and could still play, he would get an extension and a nice raise like he wants. There is a reason he didn’t do that. He knows it may be over and is trying to get more money before retiring.
He did get paid top dollar (a record contract for a LB when signed) and that has only changed in the last two seasons, but he had so much money given up front, that he still got good money compared to others over the last two seasons. Every single year the money goes up, and the Bears should not have to start over on contracts every time someone else gets a bigger deal.
You also don’t give a guy top dollar and an extension when his career is over. His may be over and all of us here know it. That is why the Bears are not going to pay him 10 mil a year to sit at home and get back massages. You pay a guy that because you believe he will stay the best for the rest of his contract. His chances of that are 50/50 at best. By the way, he still gets paid really well. If you can’t handle his money and plan for retirement, I don’t feel sorry for him. I hope he is still healthy, I hope he has a great season, and then I’m fine with him getting more money. I’m sure the Bears and most others would feel the same as well. Prove you are healthy first.
Kick it to me... I'm open!
I agree this is mostly drama
Urlacher did quietly start asking for more money last offseason, this year he just made it public to get the ball rolling for next season. I would guess no extension this year, and next year he gets an acceptable extension/bonus money. I dont understand why he signed that lengthy contract, but the Bears will eventually let him off the hook and get his salary more in line with the rest of the league.
If he drops it
and waits till next season. He’ll get more from the Bears assuming he is still healthy.
Kick it to me... I'm open!
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