Last year,Anderson replaced Alex Brown without earning it. This year,a solid football player (Blocks & catches) is taking a back seat,just because!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/fo ... 677.column===========================
David Haugh | On the Bears
August 4, 2009
BOURBONNAIS -- Out came the call for the No. 1 offense Monday to huddle up for the start of full-team drills. Tight end Desmond Clark stayed on the sidelines.
He won't deny it was an odd place to be.
"It is tough to deal with inside, at first, but then when you look at it, I still have a big role in this offense," Clark said after practice at Olivet Nazarene.
True, but that role as the backup tight end still will take some adjustment for Clark, who has started more games at his position since he joined the Bears in 2003 (92) than anybody in the league not named Tony Gonzalez. Barring injury, Clark's streak of 67 straight starts will end Sept. 13 when Greg Olsen is the starting tight end against the Packers.
That makes Clark the only Bears veteran to lose his starting designation without really getting the chance to keep it. This isn't just a guy being phased out in a process that happens at every NFL training camp. This is the first Bears tight end since Mike Ditka to post three straight 40-catch seasons having his name lowered on the depth chart.
Scan the practice fields here and competition for the jobs with the first team have commenced at left guard, wide receiver and strong-side linebacker. At tight end, in an under-the-radar move, the decision was made before camp started without a fight -- or complaint.
"I know it's not easy, but Dez's reaction was the true definition of team player," Olsen said.
Both tight ends agree Clark still will play a significant number of snaps due to the Bears' tendency to use two-tight end formations. But starting still matters to pro athletes, no matter what they say.
They only introduce 11 offensive players before games on Sundays at Soldier Field for a reason. Since players first put on a helmet, they are conditioned to want to be one of those 11.
So in a pro sports world obsessed with incentive contracts that gets harder to relate to every day, when an athlete accepts a demotion professionally, it rates as breaking news. Or at least worth a tweet: R u shocked Dez Clark was cool?
"You would have liked to have a battle to see the best person win, but that wasn't the case," said Clark, 32. "Crying and whining about it is not going to do much. I'm not a young guy in the league to say I don't like this, so I'm going to try to finagle my way out of the situation. So I might as well make the best of it."
Understand the Bears did the best thing by elevating Olsen, tough as it was for Clark to accept. That's football. Olsen is a wide receiver trapped in a tight end's body with the work ethic of a yeoman. He has Pro Bowl potential that quarterback Jay Cutler will help him approach, due in part to a rapport Clark noted in his blog in a classy post.
"Over the course of the last few months I have taken notice of a certain chemistry between Jay Cutler and Greg Olsen and think that it's something good in the making there," Clark wrote on
http://2009bears.blogspot.com.
"I look at Greg as a Pro Bowl-caliber starting tight end in this league and that made it easier to deal with than if he was a first-rounder and they were just trying to get him in the lineup because of that," Clark said.
That was the reaction Lovie Smith anticipated after he informed Clark. He knows it is not the reaction he and his 31 other head-coaching peers always can expect when delivering such news to established veterans.
"It says what type of guy Dez is," Smith said. "Real pros handle it that way, especially when you have a special player in Greg Olsen."
The notion of even being a veteran with 98 career starts passing the torch to a younger player amused Clark. It reminded him of his first training camp in 1999 when he was a wide receiver drafted in the sixth round by the Denver Broncos learning how to block after being converted to tight end.
He didn't think he would last 11 days at the position, let alone 11 years -- and counting.
"I really didn't expect to make the team," Clark said. "I had never really gotten into a three-point stance to do run-blocking. I was tossed around. Now, I can say I'm a complete tight end where I can go and block anybody playing defensive end. Looking in the past, it is remarkable at how I evolved into a starting tight end in the NFL."
Looking at the present, Clark's evolution into the role of backup tight end shows a growth every bit as impressive.
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