Lost in all the hubbub of Lovie Smith's contract extension and the 'feel good' nature of the whole thing is the fact that Ted Phillips did NOT let him tear up the remaining year on his contract.

So let me get this straight, Bobby Petrino signed a five-year, $24 million contract.

And Smith's extension is worth $22 million in new money. Added to his 2007 salary of $1.45 million, the five-year average of $4.69 million jumps him from the lowest-paid coach in the league into the top 10. (He'll make $23.45 million over five years).

You do the math - basically Lovie Smith is being paid less than a guy who's accomplished NOTHING in the NFL.

But the Bears (and the media) spin the story into him making approximately the same amount of money as Andy Reid and Jon Gruden, people who signed their contracts YEARS ago.

If he 'averages' Top Ten money, it doesn't necessarily equate to him being a Top Ten paid coach in 2007 or 2008.

Much like Brian Urlacher, Lovie Smith signed a contract that will be a value for the frugal McCaskeys within a year or two.

Meanwhile Sweaty Teddy Phillips can now give himself a lofty raise with this negotiating feather adorning the cap upon that swirly-hairdo of his.

Let the Lance Briggs saga commence.

I don't care what he gets paid. It's up to Lovie and his agent to hammer out a contract Lovie is happy with. He signed it, lets move on.

Baseball anyone?

He didn't get hosed. He thought the deal was fair and he signed it.

I think what sometimes gets lost in pro athlete's contracts is cost of living. It affects everyone elses salaries so why wouldn't it affect them too. A million dollars in the midwest goes a lot farther than a million dollars on the east/west coast.

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May 1, 2007 - CSFMB Civil War
“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

How far does a million dollars go in lake forest?

You don't have to live in Lake Forest. The average cost of a house in San Francisco last year was around 550,000 dollars. Most of the midwest is less than half that cost.

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May 1, 2007 - CSFMB Civil War
“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

I'm sure there are a lot of homes for sale on Tank Johnson's street in Gurnee. He can buy a lot of house up there.

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"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

So I guess it was alright for several assistant coaches to make more money than Lovie the past couple of seasons also.

I hear what you guys are saying that Lovie agreed to the deal so he didn't get hosed.

But in the big picture, it's a bargain contract for the McCaskeys. Bookmark this thread for three years from now, when Lovie Smith is (once again) amongst the bottom third amongst NFL Head Coach's when it comes to pay.

Matter of fact, in 2007 he'll be in the lower half of the league with his 3.5 Million salary.

Im not saying the Bears are not cheap. They are. Just like every other franchise in Chicago. I am just saying that the cost of living has to be taken into account. If you took your salary and compared it to someone in the same position in New York, Boston or LA you would notice you are paid significantly less. That is all I am saying.

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May 1, 2007 - CSFMB Civil War
“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

I'm not saying the Bears are cheap when it comes to paying their players.

They're cheap when paying their coaching STAFF.

The salary cap guarantees they have to be a certain 'percentage' below it. So they HAVE TO spend a certain amount of money on the players.

Regardless of whether or not you think that he got hosed, if Lovie didn't like it, he didn't have to sign it. PERIOD.

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There's a lot of stupid teams that overpay coaches; I, for one, am very glad the Bears aren't one of them. Remember when the Bears wanted to get Saban, but "lowballed" him?

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You can't see me because of internet.

The landowner effectively owns part shares in millions of part-time slaves called, "taxpayers." -Roy L
A Personal Relationship with Jesus?

If Lovie would have not signed extension and would have become a free agent, he would have only been paid what his 2007 salary called for in his original contract. He is getting "free" money for next year. I don't feel bad at all. He signed the contract and the day someone starts campaigning for me to get more money is the day I'll worry if someone making 22 million is underpaid.

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May 1, 2007 - CSFMB Civil War
“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

Hey hey. ho ho, OakBrookJoe deserves more dough.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

Who really cares at this point. He has more money than he will ever need for the rest of his life and if I am not mistaken it is his to keep if he is fired(unless they negotiate a buyout). If he knew that he was going to have every team banging down his door he wouldn't have signed it. This contract sets him and his family up for the rest of their lives. Bill Cowher is going to get a massive contract next year(7+ million) but he also was one of the best coaches over the past 15 years. He left Pittsburgh because he knew more money was on his way.

There is a lot to be said for happiness in a job. I think that Atlanta had to pay 5+ million was because Mike Vick is an amazing athlete who makes great plays that won't be a consistent winner. No one wants to take a job with that much of a problem. There are a lot of crappy jobs in the NFL such as Arizona, Oakland, Atlanta, and the Lions.

The Bears are still setup to dominate a bad division and still will be the best team in the NFC next year.

So anyways, I don't shed a tear for Lovie anymore. 1.3 million was a joke but I could really care less about a difference of 10 to 20% when you are talking about millions of dollars.

The Bears are frugal. If they weren't so frugal we would have had Nick Saban and not Lovie. Lovie knew that he joined a team that really doesn't think they have to overpay. The Bears play in the 3rd largest city in the US and the Bears are by far the number 1 team in the city. The Bears know this and use it to their advantage to save some money on a coach who only has 3 years of head coaching experience. If after this deal is over and Lovie has continued his success here, he will pull a Bill Cowher and sit out a year or let his contract run out and become the highest paid coach in the league.

Why is everyone using the Falcons as the orginazation to measure up against? They've made plenty of bad moves the past few years and I have a felling Bobby P will be no different.

The structure of the contract calls for a $2 million signing bonus which makes his 2007 salary $3.45 and then averages $5 mil for the next 4 years.
If you think that's low than blame Lovie who for the last 6 months has been telling everyone that this is where he wants to stay and that he will not leave the Bears.
Loyalty like that is admirable, but it's also a weak negotiating stance and makes his agent's task of getting the max contract that much more difficult.

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“Mmmm. Move over, eggs. Bacon just got a new best friend - fudge.”

It also gave him the power to get rid of everyone he didn't want here and bring in who he wanted. If he had said he didn't know if he was going to stay here, then Rivera would still be here.

He got what he wanted.

Also, he was definately going to be the coach next year at 1.3 million. Then he was going to have to go out and get a new contract and most likely would have made about 5.5 million a year.

He would not have made more money going anywhere else, unless he was released by the Bears this year. Unless he got 6 million a year from another team this contract makes him more money than he would get anywhere.

The standard for salaries should not be set by the one idiot in a market who overpays. So what if Atlanta overpaid Petrino? That is how baseball got into so much financial trouble...dumb ass owners like Steinbrenner and Hicks overpaying for ballplayers and thus raising the standards to ridiculous levels. The top ten is a reasonable benchmark and Lovie fits in there.

It's also very unfair to both parties to say Lovie got hosed. It was a negotiated agreement. Both parties gave and took. That's what negotiations are all about. If Lovie believed he was getting hosed, then it's his own fault for agreeing to it. He obviously did not believe that, or he wouldn't have agreed.

I never understood the rush and the criticism about this negotiations process anyway anyway. I don't deny the Bears have been cheap in the past under previous management. But in this case, the important fact that seemed to be forgotten in the rush to criticize the Bears is that Lovie had one year left on contract. Since when is an employer automatically in the wrong for not settling a contract negotiation by agreeing to the employee's demands one year in advance of the expiration date?

hmmm....
so one more year of guaranteed work at 1.5 million is worth throwing away?
let me know the next time you guys turn down a GUARANTEED 1.5 MILLION DOLLARS.....

We don't know the specifics of the deal.
Lovie could have been given a "signing bonus" for all we know....

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@audioidkid

I think I read that Lovie will get a $2 million dollar raise next year, raising his salary to $3.75 million.

Then starting in 2008 he will make $5 million a year for 4 years. His average salary for the next five years will be a little less than $5 million a year.

I get emails all the time from Nigeria where I turn down sums much larger than 1.5 million dollars.

after that first season, i remember calling lovie a 'chocolate covered dick jauron'

i kinda feel bad about that now.

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He got 22 million. 2 million of that is a signing bonus. So basically add that to next years salary. So that makes it 3.5 for next year. And 5 million per for the next 4 seasons after that.

Or an average of 4.7 over 5 years. How ever you want to look at it.

Like I stated earlier this morning:

Matter of fact, in 2007 he'll be in the lower half of the league with his 3.5 Million salary.

You guys having problems reading?

Frank,
What I think you meant to say is:

"If I said anything that might have been insensitive in any way, then I apologize because he worked extremely hard to get where he is now, end of quote,"

You don't want to deviate too far from the sports apology script.

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“Mmmm. Move over, eggs. Bacon just got a new best friend - fudge.”

Grid,
A contract is a contract.
You trade long term financial security for a chance that the market may escalate. We all admired MJ for not complaining even though he was making less than Pip & Kukoc.
The Bears were under no oligation to make Lovie a top paid coach in 2007. None.

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“Mmmm. Move over, eggs. Bacon just got a new best friend - fudge.”

We read what you said, but there is a flaw in the logic.

Lovie had 2 options.

Option 1: Stay with the team for this year and then test the water in the open market. He would have made 1.3 to 1.5 million this year.

Option 2: Take this deal with the Bears.

The deal is worth 5 million a year after next year, but he has already lost 2 million this year by not signing the deal.

That means that he would have to find someone who was willing to give him 5.5 million dollars a year for 4 years to break even after this year was up. He would need someone to offer 6 million a year to make it a better choice.

You never know what can happen in a year. His stock could drop. The landscape of NFL coaching salaries could change for the worse. You never know what could happen.

If you space it out over 5 years, he isn't getting that great of a deal, but if you look at it as how much money he gained by doing this, it ends up being a really good deal. No matter what, he was only getting 1.5 million this year, but now he gets 2 more million and then 5 million a year after that.

Kramer, the reason I ask is because there were two people pointing out how much money Lovie would make in 2007.

Which I had clearly pointed out earlier.

End of post.

Book it.

problems....no. desire....yes.


the fact is, lovie is going to be making a total of $23.5M over the next 5 years vs the $7Mish he was averaging for 5....not a bad increase.

I'd take a 336% raise.....anyone else?

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@audioidkid