Daventry

Those are good points and I can see what you are saying. You may be right actually, I may be unrealistic and/or unappreciative of what makes a good football player, never having played football in an organised way myself. At the end of the days, the Bears are one of the last remaining sports interests that I have and I tend to get quite irritated when it appears that the players or organisation makes the team look like fools. Perhaps oversensitive...

It is not silly for me, for me it is the essence of my discontent with the Bears, and athletics, in general. I sometimes ask myself, why am I supporting a team which pays Brian Url millions of dollars of year? He is an ignorant loudmouth embarrassment, his best playing days are well behind him, and he is considered to be the "figurehead" of the team? So, when I wear my Bears jersey many would associate this with the trailer trash image of Brian Url? I support the Bears DESPITE players such as Brian Url. I support the Bears because my father, and his father, and likely many before did. I support them because I believe the Bears reflects the character of an honest and hard-working population of a great city, Chicago. I do not watch the Bears, buy the jerseys, and follow the team to have ignorant idiots such as Brian Url spouting off about previous generation players comments in a disrespectful and foolish way. In the end, the more Brian Urlachers, the more Tank Johnsons, the more Lance Briggs, the more embarrassing and idiotic players/personnel the franchisee holds, the further it will push me from the team. Until such time that the Bears are no longer relevant to me, because I just cannot endorse what they stand for anymore. So, i hope that the organisation will choose to avoid such an environment and give me a team I can be proud of. I know this is a large request in the modern day, but hey, it is my money and time and i will spend it as I like.

No insult intended, apologies if I came across in a rude way. My point is that personally I find Urlacher's behaviour childish and infantile, not just now but in the past as well. Competitiveness should show on the field, not off the field with verbage. JMO

I would be happy to accept that verdict with a full year of giving the boy a chance. He has been moved around endlessly....he is very talented and cannot be that ignorant, give him a shot and I bet he will shine!

Manning is extremely talented and if he was allowed to stay at one position would likely excel. I am very glad we have him back and hope the coaches give him a shot at the FS or nickel position and keep him there.

I don't like Urlacher's "fire," I would call it lack of maturity and embarrassing ignorance. Not all Bears fans are cave men who want their players to eat raw meat and mutter aggressive statements. Pride has nothing to do with ignorance.

Briggs for slagging off the Bears organisation in the press unmercifully when he could not get the contract he wanted and subsequently wrecking his Lambo while drunk and originally reporting the car stolen...to be honest I have more problem with his mouth during the contract negotiation, which illustrated his lack of intelligence and arrogance quite nicely. Url has had numerous issues with women, had a period when he refused to speak to the media, and when he does open his mouth he is an embarassment. It is too bad that we cannot have players who have an IQ above 70, and a shame that he is the "figurehead" of the Bears.

Regardless of whether Url's pride was hurt, it is disrespectul and idiotic to respond in the way that he did. As I have said before, I would be much happier supporting the Bears if the team was stocked with guys with some intelligence and character rather than morons, which Url, and others, are. As it stands, I support the Bears despite guys like Url and Briggs, who are, or have been, good players but whose character is, at best, questionable. I would like to think Butkus would have enough sense to be respectful in a similiar circumstance, Sayers I don't know, but regardless, two wrongs dont make a right. Url was, and is, and always has been, a talented football player who is a complete idiot. He is not who I like to think of as the Bears figurehead. He is trailer trash who has not utilised his talent fully and made an fool of himself in his personal life. I will be happy when he is not playing with the Bears any longer.

Indeed, drama is inevitable given the passion many feel for the Bears and NFL football in general, I personally enjoy the consideration of strategy and personnel one of the best parts of following the Bears. I just wish I could sit in with coaches meetings and practices and find out "the rest of the story," as Paul Harvey used to say... I chuckled when I saw Martz commenting that WR's are the strength of the team. He has certainly been sure to be PC so far this year. That being said, I do think we have less reason to be concerned about WR than DLine. I agree with your analysis, at the end of the day we have one superstar, who has a bit of a rep for taking plays off, a couple of solid guys, a couple of unproven rookies, and a guy who showed flashes of greatness a few years ago but not much at all since. I am hoping that all of the questionable players will perform to their best potential, but if they do not and continue to show what they have in the past, we are in for a long year. That being said, I don't think I would say I feel better about the Oline than the Dline. We have no superstar there and no real solid performers. It might turn out ok, but then again....it could look like last year. Come on football season!

I agree entirely. Anderson is going to have to step up, if he doesn't alot of people will be talking about Alex Brown after a few games. I wish we could have kept Alex, he was if nothing else solid, which I am not sure that we can say about Anderson yet. Lots of questions at DT, with Harris a big question mark, Harrison showing little thus far, Idonije unproven, etc....it will be interesting.

I would say that there are some people who have some answering to do in this situation. It would be very interesting to see a thorough investigation of this situation. There have been other questions about training/injuries with the Bears in recent years....I wonder what is going on?

I hate to see Payne go, like Harris I liked his attitude and hitting ability. He was a bit weak in coverage, but then I don't think our situation at safety is as dire as some believe. I have a feeling that once we get a decent pass rush we will stop seeing safeties chasing WR's down the field.

I always liked Harris and felt he was over-criticized, although he is a SS not a FS, so let's let him play where he belongs. He is solid and a good citizen! It will be too bad to lose JW but we are stocked up at LB and need safeties.

I would bet if JA could be coerced to tell the truth he would admit that he had figured out that 1st round picks are poor value generally. Personally, I would be happy to trade away first round picks consistently and pick up FA and later picks, and I would bet that will happen more in the future with many teams, which the free market economy will cause the picks to be less expensive...the beauty of capitalism.

I didn't understand the above mentioned details of a possible deal, with those facts clear the deal does not look so bad. Thanks for clearing that up!

I would be very surprised if the Bears were willing to give Olsen up for that little...I would think he has to have more worth than that!

I got your point, and my point that if this guy is healthy he contributes much more than adding "depth." He gives us an experienced and talented starter who is superior to the other players available IMO....that is my point.

Absolutely. It was my impression that he was signed as a starting LB and showed excellent promise in camp. I would think that the staff believe he is an upgrade to other options...I hope he has a great year and Url and Briggs are healthy all year, that will equal a good LB year at the very least.

That is good news, I hope he has a healthy year. If he does, we could have a really good LB crew this year!

So glad that Briggs feels he is the correct person to identify team needs to the media.....I wonder how his Lambo is now?

Amen to all of that. Alex Brown was a Bear to be proud of, never got in trouble, gave his best effort, never complained, and always expressed support for the organisation. I sure wish he could have stuck around, and will always wish him the best. Best of luck and the future to Alex! We would be a better team with him around.

I agree that Oline and Dline are the biggest needs, and safety likely thereafter. If we had the luxury of a few more draft picks a WR would be nice, but we just do not have that luxury, and we definitely need help on both lines.... I just pray that the WR's, at least 2 or 3 of them, live up to their potential....

Cutler cutting his picks in half may have given a few more catches to some of the WR, maybe moving Hester up to 16th or 15th, but nothing significant. I did not say that the receivers were not productive, what I said was that we have no real solid and dependable performers, no one to point to and really be sure what they will bring to the table. We have several guys with one year of significant playing time and Hester basically, with a few rookie hopefuls. I hope they do work out, and I understand if the team did not have the $ to spend more on the WR position, but to say that we are set at the position is ludicrous IMO. A good example of being set at the position to me is when the 49ers had Rice and Taylor.....