Proposed CBA Details

Details of a proposed collective bargaining agreement being pitched to NFL owners Tuesday, according to sources:

• Players get 48 percent of “all revenue,” without extra $1-billion-plus off top that previously had been requested by owners.

• Players’ share will never dip below 46.5 percent, under new formula being negotiated.

• Teams required to spend minimum 90-93 percent of the salary cap.

• Rookie wage scale part of deal but still being “tweaked.”

• 18-game regular season designated only as negotiable item and at no point is mandated in deal.

• New 16-game Thursday night TV package beginning in 2012.

• Owners still will get some expense credits that will allow funding for new stadiums.

• Retirees to benefit from improved health care, pension benefits as revenue projected to double to $18 million by 2016.

— ESPN’s Chris Mortensen

No vote today.  Meeting may take place tomorrow or next week.  

Unless you are a fan of TheOtherSports (shameless plug) I’m not sure what you’re doing with your weekends.  Taking the wife to the circus?  Watching the kids hit a ball off a tee?  Nonsense.  The U.S. Open is this weekend!  Four Gold Cup quarterfinal matches, including the United States meeting Jamaica at RFK Sunday at 3!  Cup racing at Michigan!  A full slate of MLS action!  Or you put ProFootball up on your screen and keep hitting refresh until things get resolved in the NFL.

DaBearsBlog Design

Next week DaBearsBlog and the entire ChicagoNow network are undergoing severe design changes.  Since I’ve not done any of the necessary work entailed in such changes, things will be messy in these parts for ten days or so.  Once we make the change, feel free to email me and complain about it.  It’s going to be simple, yet elegant.

Player-Run Training Sessions Are a Terrible Idea

When I heard Jay Cutler was running offensive training sessions with some receivers and backs, mirroring what it happening around the league, I had one thought: are these guys nuts?  Haven’t we learned how brittle the human knee can be when making the stops and cuts required of the typical NFL athlete?  Why would these players risk injury without the protection of an NFL franchise’s contract and an NFL franchise’s doctors?  Does anybody believe the Giants will be better because Eli had a catch with Mario Manningham at Hoboken high school?  This is the kind of thing the players are doing to carry favor with the fans.  Look at how much they love to play!  Let the kids dance!  I ain’t buying it.

Urlacher Repeats: Bears Better Than Packers

So said #54 and so PFT gleefully reports.  Ironically this was reported on the same day the Packers received their Super Bowl rings.  So I guess the point goes to the Wisconsin folks.

A Sad Story About My Fandom

“I see no reason why the Bears wouldn’t at least consider taking a look at him unless they feel he’s too similar in size, stature and style to receivers such as Johnny Knox and Devin Hester who are already on their roster.”  

At a bar recently I was asked a very pointed, very specific question: “At what point will you stop caring about the 2011 season?” 

I thought about it before answering.  It was shocking to me in that moment that I’d never considered the question before.  I had never considered a moment in time wherein I would hold my hands up in the air and declare an NFL season unimportant to me.  For almost the entirety of my existence on this earth the Chicago Bears have marked my calendar, defined the second half of my year.  For almost the entirety of my existence Sundays have been holy days and I don’t belonng to a church. 

What if there is no training camp?  What if there are no games in September and October?  Would I ever be able to know the Chicago Bears were playing a football game that counts and not care about it?  Would I be able to avoid the third seat from the end at Josie Woods?  Would I be able to abandon the relationship I’ve developed with all of you on this blog over the years?   

The answer is “no” on all counts and perhaps this is the eternal power of the NFL.  Even if the entire 2011 season is missed, I’ll be right back on that barstool for opening day in 2012.  I have a severe emotional investment in the Chicago Bears.  I want them to win every time they touch the field and a Super Bowl title would mean as much to me as a bank account with a mysterious $25,000 placed in it.  And while I’m disappointed to not be discussing free agency and mini-camps, while I’ll be disappointed with every day of training camp missed and every minute of game action skipped, I don’t take these things personally. 

I will protest, though, however quietly.  I won’t be at Soldier Field in 2011 for the first time in a decade, spending my money at concessions like a sailor on leave.  I won’t buy a single piece of Chicago Bears paraphenalia this season.  I don’t have DirecTV but if I did, I’d cancel the Sunday Ticket and go to the local tavern and watch the games anyway.  I will not spend a nickel on the National Football League.  It might not matter to the billionaires.  But if enough of us took steps so minor, it would have a lasting impact.

So to answer his question, it doesn’t matter from here on out.  I’ll watch every single of action once they return to the field.  They just won’t be opening my wallet.

What about you?

Since Collinsworth is now taking high school coaching gigs and conceding the NFL will miss half their season, I thought I’d continue the Chicago Bears in High School Video Series.  Here’s Jay Cutler’s montage of his time at Heritage Hills.  He can also dunk a basketball.  (Watch and see)

Jumped onto PFT this morning and found this quote from Cowboys celebrity owner Jerry Jones: 

“I didn’t spend $1.2 billion to build a stadium and not have the Cowboys playing football in it this year.”

No, Jerry, you did not.  But you and thirty-one of your colleagues have the opportunity to ensure there are football games played in Cowboys Stadium, Soldier Field, Lambeau and that 1.6 billion dollar disaster in the New Jersey swamplands.  (If I ran DaJetsBlog.com, I would never stop complaining.)   But I’m willing to forgive ownership groups in Carolina (Richardson’s an ass), Tampa (Glazer is London-obsessed), Jacksonville (Weaver would rather own a team in any other American city) and New Orleans (Does anyone trust Benson?).  The bulk of responsibility for this continuing lockout and looming missed season rests squarely on the shoulders of the ownership elite.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

There are currently about ten or twelve stories on the home page at PFT – the only football-related site I bother to check these days with any regularity.  A quick scan saw the headline Jay Cutler: Bears Are “Locked And Loaded” For Upcoming Workouts.  I read the story and thought, “Cool.  Jay is leading.  That’s important.”  Then I looked at the rest of the page and saw these two stories:

“God, I just wish I could get through to somebody,” Collinsworth added.  “You know how when you’re talking to your kids, and you know positively what the right thing to do is, and you also know they’re going to do something else, and there’s nothing you can do about it?  That’s how I feel now.  And, God, is it painful to watch.

“The game’s so good.  The players are making money.  The owners are making money.  The commissioner’s got some good safety initiatives going.  The networks are thrilled.  The fans are thrilled.  The game’s never been better.  It’s time to quit sugarcoating this thing and really start thinking about what the NFL really might look like at the end of the process.”

He’s referring to the possibility that the players will eventually win the antitrust lawsuit (regardless of whether the lifting of the lockout while the case proceeds is upheld on appeal), that the players won’t make significant concessions from the ensuing position of ultimate leverage, and that the league will eventually say, “Screw it.  Let’s have no rules.  Let’s be baseball.”

This is the problem the NFL faced all along with this year’s draft.  They were going to spend three days reminded fans across the country how much we love all the minutiae of the league and then leave us with a few months of conversations that begin with the phrase, “Hey, is there football yet?”  That’s where we are now.  There are no trades.  There is no free agency.  And unless there is a miraculous reversal of tides, there won’t be training camp in the middle of the summer. So in order to not be bored, we discuss silly things.  Like…

T-Shirts.
If you guys want to get yourself a ‘Da Bear Jew’ t-shirt promptly, place your orders by Tuesday May 10.  I’ve heard all the reasons why some of you can’t purchase the shirt and it’s not a worry but it is my duty to let you know how much buying one of these dopey things helps me continue producing the best possible site for you guys.

Conte Has Link to The Godfather
From Brad Biggs’ illuminating piece on Beard third-round pick Chris Conte:

Conte comes from a family accustomed to playing roles. His
grandfather Richard Conte had a career spanning four decades in show
business. He starred in “Godfather” as Don Barzini after being
considered for the title role that went to Marlon Brando. He had a prominent role in “Call Northside 777,” the 1948 film starring James Stewart
that was the first Hollywood picture shot on location in Chicago. He
was in the original “Ocean’s Eleven” and was a close friend of Frank Sinatra.

“I
guess I’m not cute enough for the business,” Conte joked. “It never
interested me. My dad (Mark) is a film editor and I’d go into his work
to see him in a dark room on the computer all day. I was like, ‘Why
would you want to do this?’ I want to be outside, being physical,
competing.”

The rest of the article depicts a kid with a lot of confidence, believing he can come in immediately and compete for a starting position.  And being that he’s probably the only true free safety on the roster (once he signs a contract), I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make an impact on the field this season.

Perhaps Duerson Will Make Impact, Perhaps Note
Researchers at Boston University have made it clear that analyzing brains like Dave Duerson’s – brains that have clearly suffered significant damage – is actually producing very little information when it comes to analyzing the impact for NFL players.  The problem doctors are facings is they’ve only been given the opportunity to analyze brains suspected of suffering from CTE and until they analyze brains considered “healthy” they will not be able to address the illness as an NFL epidemic.

This is a complicated issue, sure, but an issue the league must commit every available resource to.  If they don’t, they’ll doom these terrific athletes to lives of misery.