Kaspers Korner

The Chicago Bears won a key division game agaisnt the Detroit Lions.  However, they lost a key player in starting quarterback Kyle Orton.

It is looking like Orton is going to be out a month with the dreaded high ankle sprain.  When a player sufferes this injury it is anywhere from a month, and beyond, before a player comes back.

So, what does that mean for the Bears? Most likely a trip to third place in the division.  Backup Rex Grossman is not Matt Cassell, and that means disaster for the Bears.

The Bears scehdule is not an easy one.  They face the Tennessee Titans this upcoming Sunday, and that is most likely a loss with the way the Titans offensive and defensive lines are playing.

Simply, losing a quarterback for an extended period of time usually spells doom.  Especially, when you are in a bruising division in the NFC North.

Chicago Bears general manager Jerry Angelo took tackle Chris Williams in the first round of this past years draft.  He did it knowing full well that Williams had a herniated disc in his neck, thus looking like an idiot.

A herniated disc is a more serious form of a disc bulge.  Both are the petruding of matter out of its normal position within a disc, which thus affects nerves.  These discs are located in between vertabrates along the spinal column.  

A herniated disc or a bulge can still shift around, and cause even more problems if not treated. 

The reason being is that the disc can rupture even more.  Also, the matter that is currently out of position can shift to affect nerves even more.

Now, the question that needs to be asked is who did the Bears consult when going over Williams medical records?

Who ever the Bears consulted should be fired, along with Williams former college team’s medical staff.

This is a serious matter to the point that Williams is lucky to be walking.  If the disc ruptured completely the vertabrate could have slipped, and damaged the spinal cord.  Thus, leaving him paralyzed, or even dead.

Do not be surprised if National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell looks into the matter further in the near future.

Chicago Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher has been seeking a new deal, citing that he has out performed his old one that had four years left on it.  The two sides have reached an agreement that has essentially killed long term deals.

The two sides agreement added one more year, and $25 million in new money to the deal.  With six million of it is for his signing bonus.  Thus bringing the average yearly salary to nine million dollars.

What the Bears did made no sense.  Urlacer did not out perform his contract if anything he maintained his performance level. 

The only areas that Urlacher had career highs in was passes defended (12), interceptions (5), and touchdowns (1).

Urlacher knew what he was getting into when he signed a nine year deal.  What he signed up for was a huge pay day.  Also, knowing full well that he negotiate a new deal later if the open market sky rockets.

What the Bears did was two fold.  First, they killed any deals that are longer than five years.  Secondly, it opened up the door that at any time if you have one great year it gives you the right to ask for a new deal.  That even includes rookie contracts. 

Smooth move Bears you just gave every veteran holdout even more reason to whine, moan, and complain. 

In the words of former hockey player, and former head coach, Larry Robinson, “What a bunch of ffffffffff fricken sissies.” 

Makes it even more the reason to route for Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Marcus Stroud.  Stroud did not ask for a new contract when he was traded.  All he asked for was a little bit of what was left in his contract to be accelerated in the form of guaranteed money. 

It has been reported that former Green Bay Packer quarterback Brett Farve has been mulling over the possibility of returning to the National Football League.  With that the Chicago Bears will never get even a sniff of the possibility of Farve going there.

If Farve is going to comeback he has to write to NFL heaquarters, and the Green Bay Packers, that he intends to play this season.  That has yet to be done.  If he did do that the Packers have two options release him, or place him on the active roster.

Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune writes that the Bears should make a play for Farve immediately after he comes out of retirement.  This is premised on the Packers releasing Farve out right.

Seriously, are you kidding me.  The Packers would never relase Farve outright.  Teams always when wanting to get rid of a player search the trade market to see if there are any other teams that are interested in him.  

So, who are the teams that would be possibly be interested in him?  In the AFC the only two teams that be interested in Farve would be the Cleveland Browns and the Buffalo Bills. 

Both teams just missed the playoffs last year.  Also, both teams made moves to improve their defenses vastly.  Each team is just a quarterback away from being a serious contender in the AFC.

The NFC is now the tricky one.  Farve will never be traded to another team in the NFC North division.  Just doing that alone could get general manager Ted Thompson fired. 

In the NFC east all four teams have established quarterback.  

 In the NFC West the only playoff contender is the Seahawks, but they have Matt Hasselback. 

In the NFC South there are rumours of Farve possibly wanting to go to the Panthers.  The Falcons could have made a play for Farve if they took Glenn Dorsey in the draft. 

The Falcons defense has already defensive end John Abraham and linebacker Keith Brookings.  With Dorsey they could have the makings of a decent defense.

On the offensive side of the ball.  They have wide receiver Roddy White who caught 83 receptions for over 1,200 yards receiving.  Also, the Falcons signed running back Michael Turner.  Who as a backup to Ladanian Tomlinson was spectacular. 

Also, Atlanta is just a stone throw away from his home in Mississippi.  However, the Falcons took Matt Ryan, and now the possiblity of landing him is gone.

Farve pickings is slim.  Do not be surprised that if he makes it official that he is coming back that the Packers relegate him to bckup status.  It would be a crazy thing to do, but it is a better option of just releasing him, and watching him go to their rival  Chicago Bears.

Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson was arrested, after the Lower Colorado river authority came aboard for a random safety check, which resulted in him getting not only arrested, but also pepper sprayed.  Now, a paassemger has come forward, and confirmed Benson’s side of the events.

Benson has claimed that he was not drunk, nor resisting arrest, when police sprayed him.  Which is starting to sound like the truth.

Elizabeth Cartwright was on the ship, and said,  “I called my dad and told him, ‘Call 911, my black friend is getting beaten up by police on Lake Travis,” according to Chicago newspapers.

What is even more intriguing that Benson’s mother was on the boat at the time of the incident. Now, seriously who in their right mind would get drunk in front of their mother. 

With this new peice of news the whole the police version of events is in serious doubt in the minds of people.  Things could even get worst as Cartwright’s finacee took pictures of the incident.  This was due to everyones fear, including Benson, that the police were going to far.

Benson was boating in an area that is known for partying, and drinking, which police decided to try to deter with the safety checks.

No matter what the outcome is there is one thing that you can take away from this incident.  Benson has learned not to take thing for granted, and in the end the incident may be the wake up call that he needs to live up to his potential as a running back in the National Football League.

The Chicago Bears made a major investment in giving a new contract to linebacker Lance Briggs this offseason.  Before not even playing a down the Bears could be burned as Briggs has to answer to a judge on June 19th.

Briggs was put on probation last year for fleeing the scene of an accident when he crashed it, and then reported it stolen.  Briggs has to appear before the judge, because for one he left the state without the judges permission, when he was suppose to ask for it to leave. Secondly, Briggs has only completed two hours of court ordered 120 hours of community service.

This is not good news at all for the Bears. Briggs could serve jail time for the incident.  If that happens then National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell most likely will suspend him.  Goodell could suspend Briggs just for not following judes orders, even if Briggs does not serve any jail time.  That is if Goodell wants to make an example out of him.

In any case the way Briggs is handling things off the field it is only a matter of time before he is suspended.  After all, this is the guy who crashed his car, and then fled the scene of an accident.  That clearly shows Briggs is not good at exercising good judgement.

At this point all the Bears can do is sit back, and see what happens with Briggs.  They just signed him, and now they are stuck with him for a while. 

It definetly will be intersting to see what happens next in this story.

Chicago Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher signed a contract extension in 2003 that made him the highest paid middle linebacker in history.  With four years remaing on his current deal Urlacher wants his contract redone.

Urlacher is signed through the 2011 season, and is schedule to make $3.95 million this coming year.  Urlacher wants his contract to reflect the current market.

The problem is that he has four years left on the deal, thus making the total number of years nine.  Now, who in the hell signs a nine year deal, without including some outs in it.  The prime example is in baseball with New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez.  Eventhough he signed a ten year deal his agent put in a clause that allowed him to cancel his deal.

A solution to the problem is for Urlacher to buy out the last three years of the deal.  That would entail Urlacher giving back the signing bonus proration for those years.  However, that would most likely have to be included in the current deal as well, unless the Bears agree to it.

Urlacher is supposively the team leader of the Bears according to a column writtne by Tribune’s David Haugh.  Yeah what a great team leader he is.  Unfortunately for Bear fans he is not a great team leader.

The two best teams leaders in the league are Seattle Seahawks middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu and New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady.  Both of them took less money when they signed their contracts in order to resign other players.  Now, that is a true leader. 

The fact of the matter is that he is just another whinning overpaid crybaby that feels he is getting a raw deal, because he has a deal.  In the end all he will do is hurt his team.

The Chicago Bears this past year had a dissapointing season thanks to a bunch of injuries.  However, the Bears could have a bright future ahead of them with already having four draft picks in the first three rounds, and even can accumulate more.

The Bears already have two third round picks due to a trade with the San Diego Chargers last year.  That could increase due to the Bears losing free agents last year, and only signing one, which means that the Bears will most likely get a compensartory pick.  Also, if commisioner Roger Goodell thinks that the San Francisco 49ers tamered with linebacker Lance Briggs they could pick up another pick in the first three rounds.

According to Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune, “Lest anyone think those compensatory picks are meaningless, consider this: there has been a direct correlation to compensatory picks and winning over the last decade.”  Pompei went on to point out that over the past decade the Bears are one of the 11 teams to have the most compensatoro picks awarded to, which is also the reason for their recent success.

This draft will most likely have direct coroalation to the replacement of some veterans that are getting up there in age in football terms.  Starting middle linebacker Brian Urlacher is 30 in May, and has arthritis in his back.  Left tackle John Tait is 33, center Olin Kruetz will turn 31 in June, and left Guard Terrence Metcalf is 30.  Also, defensive end Adewale Ogunleye is 31 in August.  Also, add in the possiblity of having to replace running back Cedric Benson, and quarterback Rex Grossman.

The life span of a football player is in his mid 30s.  Good teams have a sense when a player has seen his best days past, and when that happens the team will either cut players with really high cap numbers, or let players walk after their contract expires.

If the Bears are going to have success in the near, and distant future, the Bears will have to have a really good draft.

The Chicago Bears have become a team that even the best psychologists cannot figure out.  Especially after the notion that quarterback Rex Grossman will resign with the team.

That news on belhalf of ESPN’s John Clayton is very troubling.  Grossman has been inconsistent at best, and many think that he does not warrant to be resigned.

Bears fans should be outraged by the move, especially with quarterback’s Duante Culpepper, and the Buffalo Bills quarterback JP Losman available.

The only thing that I can figure out is that they figure that Grossman will bust out like Drew Breese did a couple of years ago. 

The fact of the matter is that some quarterbacks never figure it out at all.  With a proven commdity, if helathy, in Duante Culpepper the move to resign Grossman is foolish.

In the end the Bears showed why they did not get th job done at the Suoer Bow.  That being that they overestimate how good some plaeyers are.

Chicago Bears fans have to be wondering what the heck just happened.  Since, seemingly overnite middle linebacker Brian Urlacher went from being one of the best to his career possibly being over soon.

Urlacher has undergone routine surgery to repair an injury in his neck.  According to Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune the injur was discovered during a post season physical.

Bears fans should be very worried about the surgery.  Bears fans only have to ask former Detroit Lion, and Buffalo Bill, Chris Speilman.  Speilman’s career was cut short due to neck injuries that he sustained.

Urlacher is already suffering from arthritis in his back.  Now, this injury all but confirms that Urlacher’s spinal column is detoriating very quickly. 

Urlacher needs to think long, and very hard, about priorities in life. Any neck injury is serious, and I know that personally thanks to a neck injury in high school football.

The thing that most people do not understand is that when you injure your neck either the vertabrate, or the disc has a good chance of slipping, and causing damage to nerves.

The fact of the matter is that Urlacher’s career is done for, but most likely he and the team will just brush it off.  Then Urlacher will get injured again, and that is when his career will end.

The Bears came off a very dissapointing season, after makingthe Super Bowl the year before.  With the draft coming up it looks like it will be time to draft another quarterback.

With Rex Grossman, and Brian Greise, failing to become solid quarterbacks the Bears look to have no choice.  The Bears pick within the middle of the pack, and there seems to be only three right now.

However, it is early in the process when it comes to draft preparations.  The biggest scouting day of them all being the Combine in Indy.

That is the day that quarterbacks have gotten hot.  Both Phillip Rivers, and Jay Cutler were not even thought of as high first round picks.  Then they went through the predraft proceess, and then found themselves at the top of the draft. 

The matter of the fact is that the Bears draft 14th.  That is not a really good spot to get a quality quarterback, but is it really worth it trading up.

Bonuses are skyrocketing through the roof, and there seems to be no end in sight.  The best thing for the Bears to do is to do their homework.

Tom Brady was a sixth round choice, and current Buffalo Bills starter Trent Edwards was a third round choice.

The fact is that the Bears can get a quality quarterback, but it will only come through the hard work of the organization.  Most likely Bears will give up hope by that time.  I know that I was about to with the Bills before Edwards.