ISN’T THIS SO BEARS?
Smith’s contract fiasco could happen to only one NFL team
For a moment, put aside your thoughts about who’s to blame in the Roquan Smith contract impasse. Shelve your anger at the Bears for wanting to put conditions on Smith’s guaranteed money or at their first-round pick for missing so much of training camp because of words in a contract.
Instead, ponder the question we in Chicago feel in our bones:
Doesn’t it figure that, of all the teams in the NFL, the ham-handed Bears are at the center of this mess?
Or, as I like to put it, how about putting energy into winning some football games?
The stalemate is about contract language. The Bears want to have the right to take Smith’s guaranteed money if the league disciplines him for bad behavior on the field, whether that’s throwing a cheap shot at an opponent or shoving an official. Or, possibly, if Smith turns out to be an underwhelming player and gets suspended for an on-field transgression, the Bears want to be able to release him without salary-cap consequences. His future pay, no longer guaranteed, wouldn’t count against the cap.
Now, you might consider a guarantee to be just that: guaranteed against being taken back. Not in the NFL.
Most contracts include a clause that puts a player’s guaranteed money at risk if he says anything to the media that might bring disrepute upon the team. I love the idea that the Bears — this bumbling, stumbling organization — are worried that words in the newspaper, not Packers on a football field, will kill them.
According to the standard contract, a player’s guaranteed money can be voided if he ‘‘makes any public comment to the media that Club determines, in its sole discretion (1) breaches a material obligation of loyalty to Club and/ or (2) materially undermines the public’s respect for or is criticizing of Club, Player’s teammates,