Lamont Jordan...at least that was the name that came up when Carmen & JD talked with John Clayton this afternoon.

Between Cedric and Ricky Williams, I'd be wary of drafting any RB from Texas for a while.

Come to think of it, with the way that Vince Young was thinking about quitting after his first year, I'd be wary of drafting any offensive specialty positions from Texas.

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Cowboys?

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I have very little use for "Why is Mac so Angry?"- My Bitch(Mr. Reason)

If they didnt just sign Barber I wouldn't put it past Jerry Jones...but they have enough backs right now.

Good riddance to a piece of garbage. This guy's going to pull an Alonzo Spellman, and Mike Singletary's going to have to drive to the suburbs to help him take the pistol out of his mouth.

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"Ditkith"? See that? That's your I.Q. Buddy! ZERO! ....I'd rather talk to HIM!"

Actually was thinking the other Texas team might be interested.....When Ahman Green looks like your feature, you might have as many issues as the Bears.

I can see the Broncos giving him a chance.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I bet the St. Louis Cardinals are sad that they can't sign him.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The Jets could use a change of pace back.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I'm a little suprised they cut him. Does anybody know what this means for the cap? They can't sign anybody for a ton of money, they've got other contracts to work out.

They should go for Kevin Jones. Maybe Alexander, I don't think he has a ton left but I think he might help the development of Forte.

I do not want to see Henry or Jordan in a Bears uniform.

Upon hearing the news an big went up at the Spaulding household. For today, I like Jerry Angelo again.

All it means is that, whatever the cap is, they have to be 3 million below that. That was Benson's salary. Benson's salary counts against the cap even though he's not on the team. Bears don't lose the actual money. Benson doesn't get it.

They might not have spent to the cap anyway. Bears have to get another RB. But I'm sure the back they get will be cheap. He'll be a vet that's been cut.

With his history and all the comparisons to Ricky Williams coming out they better had put some conduct clauses in.

They better put clauses in all their players contracts after the lessons from Tank and other cases like pacman and vick.

Might? Arent they still like $20M under it?

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Yeah, but if they signed Tommie Harris, Hester, or gave more to Urlacher, some of that would go against this years cap. There is a deadline. It's during the season. I think the end of October. It's where you can extend guys with some of the money counting against this years cap. Teams like to do that. They do it if they have the room. Bears have done it for Kruetz, Peanut, and Tillman.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2008/05 ... te_no.html

http://boards.chicagobears.com/forums/1 ... hread.aspx

I'm kinda skimming these but I don't really understand it. And it looks like they only have about 10M left.

And F Urlacher. I don't know that he is one of the best Bears ever. I don't know where he ranks on best LBs list.

As with most of this city's athletes his attitude sucks, but I think he's one of the best Bears ever. He's arguably the best defensive player in the NFL this decade.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I don't think I totally understand the cap either.

One other thing I think is a factor:

A lot of vets have roster bonuses. Where by if they make the opening day roster they get 1 or 2 million dollar bonus. It's how their contracts are structured. That's why you see a lot of decent vets get cut in camp. To avoid paying these. These roster bonuses go against the cap too. I think. That's why teams have some room right now. Cuz they know they have these bonuses that vest once their vets make the opening day roster.

You really don't think much of the Bears.



Tallest Midget award. Maybe I'm old and pissed off but I grew up watching much better players.

I do think alot of the Bears, on defense. I know its easy to be pissed at Urlacher after the preceding 18 months, but perhaps you are too far in the forest to see the trees. Ray Lewis is really the only LB I think you can make a good case for being better since Lawrence Taylor. That Arizona game a couple years back was just unbelievable. When he's healthy and on his game, its incredible how much space he can cover. Im not sure if he was really hurt last year of if hes losing a step, maybe we find out this year. But its tough to argue with his first 8 years in the league.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I think he's good but I still say fuck him. He's got no leverage. Bears are offering a little. He'll have to take it. He has no choice. Can't sit out. He won't get paid at all.

Spaulding, even if you're talking about the '85 Bears, you didn't see anybody better than Urlacher. He really is as good as anybody on that defense.

That being said I think he's stupid and pisses in all Bears fans faces by acting like a child and not talking to the media. Plus he's dumb for having a couple of kids with a few different women.

I agree with this. Maybe if he was a consumate professional and gentleman, I could partially buy the "You owe it to him" argument, but hes treated the franchise and the fans like shit. He's a jackass. I wouldnt give him another dime over the next 4 seasons. If he doesnt like it he can retire. I still think he's one of the best players I've seen.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Plus I think he has to play. I think he actually needs the money still.

There is no way this idiot invests or saves. He probably has people robbing him blind. He's probably spent a shit load of it. He has to pay a couple of mothers. You know he's gonna knock up a few more.

He should be set for life right now even if he retires. You just know that he's not set for life.

Obviously Im not a Bears fan. But I dont have a problem with him asking for more money, I just dont think the Bears owe it to him and I think it would be a bad business decision to give it to him. He's an asshole who clearly doesnt respect the team or the fans. I dont think fans get upset if a player outperforms his deal and wants a little more money, I think they get upset if said player is an unlikeable jerk who's best days are most likely behind him, which Urlacher is.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Nas, you, of all people, should know that I would pay any cost; truly suffer the slings and arrows of accusation and scorn to have Kevin Jones on my team.

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My Maserati does 186.

Nas,
He has FOUR years left on his deal. He signed it knowing what he was getting. I could understand if he had two years left but he has four of them. No one told him to sign a very long deal. He chose to because he got something out of it.

The Bears could cut him if he got injured, and that's why signing bonus money is so huge in the NFL. He could have gotten a guaranteed contract and he would have made the exact same amount of money. It just wouldn't have included a massive signing bonus.

Urlacher didn't outplay any deal. He was a great player when he signed the deal and he still is. This isn't some guy making $750,000 a year who has become a pro bowler. This is a guy who was paid as a top player and now wants to re-do his deal just because he wants more money. If that was the only criteria that mattered, then every NFL player should hold out every year since they all want more money.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

That means nothing. He signed a long deal. He was paid very well when he signed the deal. Inflation and increase in salaries have lowered his ranking in salary but that doesn't matter. He has four years left on a deal that he thought was very good when he signed it. He probably got a lot more in his original deal by signing a longer deal, and now he doesn't like the fact that it's working out for the Bears now.

Urlacher is underpaid based off of his production. There are a lot of players that are like that. If payment was based purely off production then there are a lot of players that would be making a lot less and others making a lot more.

You don't get paid for your production. You get paid for your position at the time of negotiation. Urlacher may have been dumb to sign a deal as long as he did, but he had his reasons and received the benefit of doing so. Now, he wants to redo his deal because it's at the point where the Bears are getting the best of the deal right now.

By your thinking, every NFL starter should threaten to hold out because they are underpaid once they hit the second year of the contract.

Sorry, but Urlacher can hold out for the next four years if he wants. He wasn't tricked into signing his original contract.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I don't mind that he asks for more money. I also don't mind if the Bears say "fuck you" to him.

Make that three fans of this KJ. Nas, You don't remember the entire Fantasy season two years ago when I had Jones and you kept trying to get me to trade him to you every freaking week?

I don't think you understand the point. The contract includes a provision that allows the company(Bears) to terminate the employee(Urlacher) before the end of the contract with no penalty beyond the owed money. The contract is only guaranteed for the company. That may not be fair, but it's a negotiated system.

This is why guaranteed money is such a big deal and why players get huge signing bonuses. It's a reaction to the fact that the contract is not guaranteed.

It would be like if I negotiated with my company to give me half of my salary for the next 5 years up front, but to pay me 50% of my salary every year. 4 years later, I wouldn't be happy with my take home pay, but I already received the benefit of having a much larger bank account as soon as I signed the contract. The NFL is operating under this.

Urlacher got a lot more money earlier on by getting a big signing bonus. He was able to use that money right away, invest it, buy condoms, or any other option he wanted with it.

The point is that he signed a contract with the Bears, knew all the conditions, including the fact that the front loaded nature of the deal would mean that every year he would progressively fall in the salary rankings. This was obvious from the start. It's obvious that Lance Briggs will begin to see a similar thing happen to him.

The only difference between a guaranteed contract and what Urlacher has is that someone with a guaranteed contract has to wait to get the money. The money is the same but Urlacher got his much earlier.

I could understand if Urlacher had two years left on his deal, and wanted to work on an extension to finalize his career in Chicago. Four years is way too much and he shouldn't have signed the contract if he thought that the last four years were not fair. He obviously did then.

I don't blame him for wanting more money. We all do. I do blame him for taking advantage of the benefits he got for signing a long term deal(including a larger signing bonus) and then complaining with those benefits have run out and now he is not paid as well as he was.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

To me, this is what you are missing Nas. Also, what goes around comes around. Maybe if Urlacher wasnt such a colossal dick, in addition to being NFL-old and being injured last season, he would get that restructured contract. He's treated the team like shit while here, I have no problem with them returning the favor. I agree with you and Beardown he has every right to ask for more money. You seem to be missing the point that the Bears have every right to tell him to fuck off.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul