Now check me if I am wrong, because in the end it might be me who is not that smart, but one of the stories that is going around this morning and I think credit goes to the Chicago Sun-Times is that Rosenhaus and Briggs have a plan to allow Briggs to minimize his injury potential and stop the Bears from using the franchise tag for 2 years.
The plan is to sit out 10 games and then come back and play for the last 6 games. In the NFL 6 games counts as an accrued season, meaning he has completed his contract year.
There are two problems with this:
- Unless something has snuck by me, the Bears are allowed to use the franchise tag on the same player. I think some rules are either in place or going in place to stop long term use, but I believe they could still use it next year.
- Regardless of what rules are in the first, to be allowed to play 6 games he has to sign his franchise deal. Now that their 'masterplan' is public, why would the Bears allow him to sign it without some type of guarantee? Some verbage in the contract that states if he sits out for so many games, then this happens?
He is wagging a war of words against a team, who refuses to acknowledge him.
He refuses to speak to the local media that might actually, through time spent, feel sorry for him and sympathize and give him some good press.
He has turned his back on the fans that root for him and bought his jersey all in the name of egotism and vanity.
He on a regular basis bashes the team that gave him his start and turns up his nose at a long term deal that would have paid 5 million per year and sneers at a franchise contract that would pay 7 per and then claims it isn't about the money.
He refuses to deal with this as a man and work this thing out. Sit down with Angelo and Smith explain to them what you want, don't come in throwing contract demands around. There is more to this than your side.
He admits that he wants to be the man forgetting that football is a team sport. Go ahead ask the man whose enormous shadow you will never get out of, why he is so successful and I promise that he will lay praise at the feet of his coaching staff and lob complements to the guys up front giving him time to do what he does and the guys behind him who allow him to take the risk if he thinks he can. The fact is you can never actually be the man. You can be the big name on a team full of players, but unless you are planning on playing on a last place team there are always other stars. Urlacher is a great player, one of the best line backers of all-time, but he would be buried without Harris, Brown, Anderson and Ogunleye.
I hope that this deal does not go through and instead the Bears pull off a deal that sends him to Oakland or Cleveland where the teams are still trying to establish themselves as legitimate contenders. See how it feels when things aren't going all that well. When you are off on your weak side doing a fantastic job covering your guy, but somebody just blew by your guys on the other side for the game winning score.
I get dizzy trying to figure out their strategy. Why not call my mom a tramp, pee on Walter's grave and muss up Dikta's hair. In the end it puts you in the same position and saves a lot of us a lot of time and it probably would have gotten you out of Chicago faster,you putz!