packers11
03-04-2007, 11:24 AM
POSTED 12:08 p.m. EST, March 4, 2007
LEAGUE OFFICE TOLD BEARS TO GET IT DONE?
There's talk in league circles that the sudden decision of the Bears to give Lovie Smith a contract worth $5.5 million per year was the direct result of a call from the league office advising the Bears that the failure to reward a prominent African-American who was the lowest-paid coach in the NFL was fast becoming a major embarrassment to the team and to the league.
So the message was to get it done. And done it got. The same day.
Really, how else could the Bears have come up with an extra $2 million per year so quickly after a stalemate was declared? Previously, the Bears were at $3.5 million, at most. So either the Bears suddenly woke up and realized that they needed to increase the offer significantly -- or someone else woke them up to it.
And is it far-fetched to think that the league office has such influence over the individual teams? When it was time for the Bears to hire a new G.M. six years ago, the Bears used an outside consulting firm that had been hand-picked by the league. The thinking was that it gave the league a way to help hand-pick the G.M. of the Bears.
Of all of the 32 NFL teams, the Bears are among those most likely to defer to the authority of the league office, since the Bears are one of the original NFL franchises.
So there you have it. No one will ever admit it. But folks in the know are convinced that it happened that way.
Thats low if the league had to tell the BEARS to get that contract done...
LEAGUE OFFICE TOLD BEARS TO GET IT DONE?
There's talk in league circles that the sudden decision of the Bears to give Lovie Smith a contract worth $5.5 million per year was the direct result of a call from the league office advising the Bears that the failure to reward a prominent African-American who was the lowest-paid coach in the NFL was fast becoming a major embarrassment to the team and to the league.
So the message was to get it done. And done it got. The same day.
Really, how else could the Bears have come up with an extra $2 million per year so quickly after a stalemate was declared? Previously, the Bears were at $3.5 million, at most. So either the Bears suddenly woke up and realized that they needed to increase the offer significantly -- or someone else woke them up to it.
And is it far-fetched to think that the league office has such influence over the individual teams? When it was time for the Bears to hire a new G.M. six years ago, the Bears used an outside consulting firm that had been hand-picked by the league. The thinking was that it gave the league a way to help hand-pick the G.M. of the Bears.
Of all of the 32 NFL teams, the Bears are among those most likely to defer to the authority of the league office, since the Bears are one of the original NFL franchises.
So there you have it. No one will ever admit it. But folks in the know are convinced that it happened that way.
Thats low if the league had to tell the BEARS to get that contract done...