Behavior analysis: Bears already done as '07 contenders


Clark Judge May 17, 2007
By Clark Judge
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer



Remember that hex the Super Bowl puts on losing teams the following seasons? It's alive, well and living in Halas Hall.

There you'll find the Chicago Bears, last year's Super Bowl losers and the first club to be DQed from this year's NFL championship game. Normally, you wait until November or December before telephoning the league coroner, but the Bears will spare you the trouble.

Make that call now.

It's not that the Bears don't have the talent to win. They do. It's not that they made dumb offseason moves, either, because they didn't. It has nothing to do with the draft or with Rex Grossman imitating the Venus De Milo or with a division that is barely visible in the rear-view mirror.

Nope, this has to do with the Bears' behavior. It stinks, and, yeah, I'm talking about Lance Briggs, Alex Brown and Tank Johnson.

Once they couldn't stop making plays, fixtures in the NFL's toughest defense. Now, they can't stop making news, with Brown stepping forward this week to announce he asked the Bears' permission to seek a trade.

Not because he's unhappy. Not because he becomes a free agent next year. Not because he doesn't like the coaching staff. But because "I just want to see what else is out there," Brown said on Sirius Radio.

Swell.

No, I don't get it, either. But what I am beginning to understand is that these Bad News Bears look more like a bunch of misfits than a football team, and that's not how you overcome the post-Super Bowl blues.

Lest you forget, teams that lose a Super Bowl one season typically go into the jar the next. Five of the past six, in fact, not only failed to reach the playoffs the following seasons; they couldn't win more than they lost.

Seattle broke that skid last year when it won its division with a 9-7 record, but then it fizzled in the playoffs against Chicago.

So at least there's hope for the Bears, especially when you survey the field in the NFC North. But football is a team game, and if you don't behave as a team, you don't go far -- which Chicago seems intent on proving.

Earlier this week, I was talking to an AFC offensive coordinator when the conversation turned to the Bears, and it wasn't long before he started wondering how a club this dysfunctional survives the season. When I reminded him they play in a division with the Packers, Vikings and Lions, he stopped wondering.

"Still," he said, "I can't see them doing much."

I can't, either, and that's not a knock on general manager Jerry Angelo, coach Lovie Smith or Smith's assistants. It's an acknowledgement of a disturbing trend involving Super Bowl losers, as well as disturbing behavior by some of Chicago's top defensive players.

At the head of the class is Briggs, who rebelled after he was designated the team's franchise player -- demanding a trade and insisting he won't play for the Bears again. That means he doesn't show up for training camp, which means training camp just got a whole lot more interesting.

Look what happened with Dallas last summer when then-coach Bill Parcells was barraged with Terrell Owens questions. First, he bristled. Then, he just stopped answering. But at least T.O. was there. What do you think happens when Briggs pulls a no-show?

And he might not be the only one missing from the lineup. Johnson met with commissioner Roger Goodell this week after Johnson spent two months in prison on weapons charges. Johnson appealed for leniency, but I don't see how it happens. I mean, Jamal Lewis did time in the big house, too, and he was suspended two games by a commissioner more lenient than Goodell.

Plus, the timing is all wrong for Tank. He comes along when Goodell is determined to clean up the NFL's Guys Gone Wild and after the commissioner brought down the hammer on Pacman Jones and Cincinnati's Chris Henry.

The prevailing opinion is that Johnson sits down, with a half a season a possibility.

Then there's Brown, and don't ask me what happens there. The Bears don't have to budge, and they won't. I don't know what that does to Brown, but I have a pretty good idea what it means for team chemistry.

Give me that pen. I need it to delete Chicago from the Super Bowl.


For some reason, I like this article better than all the Favre articles we've been reading.