Bears need to show Lovie the money

Angelo is smart. He knows that Chicago fans don't have the guts to stand up to high-level managers and officials (Jerry Angelo, Rod Blegojevich, Mayor Daley). They would rather deal with more losing seasons than try to force Angelo to do his job. The Bears franchise will be able to milk this year's Superbowl for the next 21 years, just like they did with Payton and the 1985 Bears. In all probability, Angelo will not renew Lovie's contract. If he does renew the contract, he won't pay Lovie much more than he did this year.

Hopefully, Lovie will move on after this season.

It's no wonder that the organization has gone through so many losing seasons. They would've never paid for anyone like Bill Cowher,so any one holding their breaths should stop right now. McGinnis gave them the middlefinger salute because he knew they were going to low-ball him. And anyone who thinks that coaches grow on trees should look at this season since it ended. No one low-balled their new coach. Tomlin got a 4 year 10 mil contract and he was a coordinator for only a year. Unproven. But they thought highly of him to pay him less than half what they were trying to pay Cowher. Still,the front office of the BEARs will solidify the fact that everyone knows that the BEARS will never pay what they should. Even Kruetz gave them a discount and walked away from money on the table to stay. Imagine where they would be if he didn't do that? Brian Urlacher is the excuse they hold up whenever a guy becomes a free agent like Briggs."We have enough money allocated to linebackers to pay only Brian. Who else deserves to be paid what Brian makes?". For one, Brian Urlacher should be paid much more than he does. He signed his contract enough years ago that he is off-kiltered where the best are paid. It's not my money,granted,just my interest as a fan who wants the best for his team. I really don't do enough to pay anyone's salary. Other than TV they don't get my revenue. I don't buy jerseys because I already got stiffed with a Salaam, Zorich, Thierry, Woolford and Thomas jerseys for guys who aren't even with the team anymore. Nice to have the "numbers" but what good are they? I only have an Urlacher jersey. Pay Lovie what the going rate is for a guy that took his team (waiting for ,win)to The Superbowl. Don't show your ass now management. GO BEARS!!!

The obvious answer to all situations would be to just shut up and pay Lovie Smith. However, we're not necessarily dealing with a team known for its sense of logic when it comes to front-office decisions.

Personally, I wonder if the Bears are wanting to see what happens after the Super Bowl because they know Rivera and/or Turner stand a good chance of being hired for head coaching jobs elsewhere. They want to see if Smith is as good without his core staff.

I do wish they would abandon that approach and just give the whole staff raises.

(By the way, William--I actually have two Kyle Orton jerseys, which shouldn't surprise anyone who reads my posts, but still is kinda funny. I do see your point about Urlacher, though.)

Roman responds: I disagree on Urlacher's situation. No one forced him to sign that long contract. It was the same way when Scottie Pippen signed a multi-year deal and then regretted it. The only difference is Urlacher isn't pouting. And no one forced Lovie to sign his deal, but now it's time to make sure he's around for a while. Continuity is huge for a team that wants to build a consistent championship contender.

I never said that Urlacher should complain. I said that with him they use the excuse that he's taking up all the money for the LBs so they can't pay Briggs much more. I'm not saying he was wrong by signing. But he should never expect them to do another one even if he asked. Other teams wrap up players even ones who still have time on a contract. They extend it sometimes to free up some extra money . Brian just happened to get a rather large contract( years) that will be outdated soon. I would want the security of a long-term contract if I was a player,but with football there are no guarantees that they will honor a contract(owners). Only the up-front money seems to be guaranteed. They are the ones approaching Lovie and his camp told them to wait. Even Marty was getting an extension as did Coughlin and they were considered lame-ducks. Extend him now or get ready to say good-bye. Come on,Darryl. Kyle Orton? Sorry man you couldn't give me one of those jerseys. That dude didn't impress me enough last year for me to fork over 70 dollars even on the mesh-cheapo jerseys. Your money man. I wouldn't do a Rex either. Too Funny,D.M. GO BEARS!!!

Holy crap, why all the negativity? Ted Phillips said he would take care of Lovie after the Super Bowl. What is he supposed to do, throw a 100 million at Lovie now, or wait to.. you know, negotiate a contract?

And btw to the poster above, it's Phillips that negotiates the contracts on this level, not Angelo. Angelo himself needs a new contract and he too deserves to be paid, at least as much as Smith. Why don't we at least wait until we see what happens before going berserk over this?

Roman responds: It's a discussion. Who's going berserk?

So I assume if Lovie was 6-10 this year, the Bears would get to adjust his contract down? Good to see Lovie is no different than players. Ah yes, it's good to be an athlete where contracts mean nothing. Sign a contract, live up to it!

Roman responds: It's not about this one, it's about the next. He's worked his way into a major payday, pay him.

I had to comment on your column comparing the 85 Bears to this year. Most were obvious, some were difficult but Gault over Berrian??? Gault was all speed and no substance. Berrian has made several key catches and is emering as the Bears #1 receiver...which also begs the question...Muhammed over McKinnon??? No way...again, McKinnon made several key catches in the 2 NFC playoff games and was a better blocker.

Roman responds: I may have gone with McKinnon, too, but I'm not sure he was a better blocker.

Did you actually call Doug Buffone a "legend" in your column? HUH? Buffone was a nice player and all, good complement to Butkus but LEGEND? Good grief...the kool-aid is running wild!

Roman responds: Well, legend doesn't necessarily imply greatness. But he was one of the most durable players in franchise history. That in itself can define a legend.

Lovie will get his due. He is going to be here a long long time.

This is disgraceful I wasn't going to post because I want to have only positive thoughts going into the big game. Having said that I won't go into detail about how the Halas/McCaskey family is known for never getting off the ole wallet but they are.

Then I heard that most assistant coaches get paid more than the Bears head coach.

Mike and Ginny- Sort this embarrsment out will yah. The man is due. He has proved that this is not all about the money for him. Its like he did a job on good faith so now its time to pay, he did really well at his job so duh, pay him really well. If he had done really poorly, then you pay him really poorly, but that is not the case.

Bah!

Go BEARS!

BEAR DOWN!

Two things about the comparison to 85 Bears column...Briggs over Marshall? No way - Marshall was a complete butt kicker. And whose idea was it with the "Payton or Jones" headline? That's disturbing...

Saying you're gonna take care of someone is different than doing. It's a shame that this organization can't keep it together. Too many times they've taken the stance that they are holding down cost when in actuality they are worrying about keeping their money. Mark Cuban is a prime example of an owner speaking with action rather than words. Say what you want about Dan Snyder in Washington but he also pays(and sometimes over pays) to help his team. Who else would've gotten Joe Gibbs to come back to coaching? They showed him the money. If you want to own a team on the cheap just tell the fans that that's what you want to do and ask them to accept that. If you want to be cheap never raise ticket prices and don't ask anyone to pay 8 dollars for a hotdog and 10 dollars for a beer. We'll show up if it was cheaper even if you are fielding a loser,just ask Cub fans. We need owership who don't have just the BEARS as their moneymaker. McCaskeys have 10 siblings who don't work,but are millionaires because of Halas being their Grandpa. Coaches need time to set that foundation. Look at Bill Cowher:he finally won a Superbowl after 14 years in Pittsburg. In those 13 other seasons he took his team to the Superbowl once and to the playoffs several times. He would've never done that if he wasn't given the opportunity by ownership. He stayed there long enough to win it all and they wanted to pay him 6 mil a year for doing that. we really can't keep starting over as a team every 5 years like we have. I heard one person say that Lovie wouldn't accomplish much without his coordinators. Why does he have so much scrutiny about him compared to a lot of other head coaches? Question:the last 5 head coaches in the NFC, who were their D and O coordinators? If you can answer that right off the top of your head you know football. I can't, because it didn't matter to anyone until it happened to Lovie. GO BEARS!!!

I think the Bears will pay him enough to keep him happy (they better). Lovie is only the second good coach the Bears have had in how many years. If I was Jerry Angelo, I would offer him 5-6 million per year for 5 years. I think Lovie would be very happy with that.

I disagree with your pick for tight end. Clark is much bigger and is turning into a devastating blocker, besides being a good receiver.

Briggs is not better than Marshall. I agree with Rudy about Clark. Berrian was better and if Tommy Harris was playing I'd give it to him over Perry. When they were talking about the front seven on the 85 D during the last game every player they showed was serious and determined. A lot of these players used to be able to kill the QBs and murder the offensive players. Nowadays you can't touch them after 5 yards and the QBs are overly protected. You can't compare too much because after 85 they made it harder for teams like the BEARS to play the way the were playing. They penalized them for being so good. There are too many things to list that teams can't do anymore that the BEARS did so well.

I worry that Phillips and Angelo think that the success is not Lovie's and the players but their own. Similar to Jerry Krause/Jackson/Jordan/Pippen debacle.

Phillips is a hard man and it's more about power than anything else. He's had so many coaching problems, and he's already tried to low ball Lovie this year, as reported in two different papers.

Worst is that Lovie's salary doesnt' count against the salary cap. Jerry Jones would give Lovie 7 million a year in a heart beat.

From what I've been able to ascertain from recent articles written in the Chicago papers, it appears that the McCaskeys are indeed prospering with the Bears franchise. I think that they are feeling more comfortable about paying the right people. We'll know if this is true soon after the Super Bowl has concluded. I'm going to be devestated if the Bears organization doesn't take care of Angelo, Smith and the scouting and personnel people that have enabled the Bears to have an impressive 3-4 year run of draft pick and free agents as well as success on the football field. People like that build dynasties.

Roman, you're a press guy, so maybe you can explain where you heard that Smith was offered a contract that doubled his salary, because Phillips denies that this is true.

Roman responds: I didn't write it, but it wouldn't surprise me. Thing is, $2.6M still is under the market value of a coach who's done what Smith has done. Nick Saban was offered more before he was an NFL head coach.

I thought lovie had another year on his contract. I'd wait to renew him until next year. What's the rush? If he walks hire rivera. Lovie has done an ok job but some of his decisions are still really shaky. He is still a first time head coach, not in the hall of fame yet. Hope he doesn't call anymore timeouts for the other team with 2 seconds left in the superbowl, with the game on the line, that might be what, oh let see, embarrassing?

As far as comparisons with 85 bears, if this bunch can win a superbowl, then maybe you could compare a couple with those bears. Start with number of hall of famers on each, including coaches.

Perhaps Lovie is the lowest paid coach in the NFL, but come on...1.5 Million per season is a lot of money for anyone. Not saying Lovie doesn't deserve a little bit more, but let's keep things in perspective. If someone can't live on 1.5 Mil a year there is something seriously wrong there. Most people in the sports or entertainment industries are way overpaid, thats why a lot of families cannot afford to go to these games anymore. High salaries, $7 beers, $5 hot dogs, parking fees...it all makes it hard for the average family to go. Oh and $29.95 for a Bears NFC Championship hat is robbery.

Roman responds: You say keep things in perspective, but perspective is getting paid market value. How much do you think the owners are living on? And as far as those hot dogs, beers and shirts, that commission doesn't go to players or coaches. That goes to the top.

Just pay the man (Lovie) what he is worth as well as the asst. coaches and perhaps we will get 2-3 Super Bowl Championship Teams

Frankly it boils down to simple economics. Angelo and Co. have a very simple answer to paying more money. "Why?" What would possibly motivate them to give widespread raises when they will make only marginally less money if they leave salaries static.

They still fill the stadium, and their televised games will increase, further lining the coffers of Bears executives. Chicago is a rare franchise in that through the good and the bad, Bears fans still show their support.

Want to force the corporate hand of the Bears into actually paying for talent? Convince Bears fans to not attend a few games. Preferably ones that are televised. That will hit them where it hurts.

But, if I were in this as a business venture and not a labor of love... I would hold out as long as possible on salaries, and pay the ones whose jerseys actually sell (mainly Urlacher.)

Roman,

Plenty of people work hard each day and yet they don't get paid "market value". Like another person posted, Lovie still has another year to go on this contract and he is a first time head coach. So what if team owners are making out ok, it's their money that is being spent to build the team, so they should reap the most rewards. Try buying your own team and then you can hire whoever you want and pay them "market value" and see how you make out.

Roman responds: We're all entitled to our opinions.

Who wants to come out and say really why Lovie shouldn't be locked up in a long-term contract? The last two guys didn't get this team to the Big dance under any circumstances. Ditka got paid market value and those other two got re-ups that were market value. I think a lot of people who hate on Lovie do it for some silly reasons.So he's not a braggard who blows his own horn. That should be a plus when it comes down to it. He's not running around blaming anyone after losses and he doesn't show emotion because he doesn't have to. If what the other two did got them fair market contracts then why shouldn't he get one ? That thinking about wait and see is the main reason we had to do with the last two .Both were first time around coaches and look at what they brought to the table? I hope and pray that we win this Superbowl so Lovie can go and sign with Dallas. Some of you guys don't need a winning coach. You make them jump through hoops and we'll end up back the way it was after 1988. That's how long we've been losing and not getting close. Spoiled by success. Your memories don't serve you. Saban had a year or two left on his contract and he bolted for bigger money. Some contracts aren't worth the paper they are written on. Pay a man what the going rate is or let everyone know that we aren't serious about doing what we're doing,now. Going to the Superbowl. I can see why it took Chicago so long to get back there. The McCaskeys were counting their money and shortchanging the foolish fans who still showed up for the games. Yeah, wait and see. GO BEARS!!!

Is anyone surprised that neither paper is focused on the hiring of Singletary to the Boys'. Just came across the wire.

If I was the Bears I would not pay Smith what the top coaches get. Remember last year when he got taken to school in the playoffs by John Fox in the loss to Carolina. All Smith has done is win a bad conference, just look at the records of the playoff teams in the NFC compared to the AFC. The Bears are not that good of a team, but since the NFC is so weak they find themselves in the superbowl. Also, I hope you fans ease up on that dynasty talk because especially on offense, the Bears are an ancient team that was built by mostly signing veteran free agents. Well, those free agents are now in their early or mid 30's so it would not surprise me to see the Bears drop to 8-8 next year.

John Fox was cashing better paychecks and his team failed to make the playoffs last year. It's not just Lovie there are a lot of people who need to be taken care of who contributed to this team's success. Fans always want to think that anyone can do a bang-up job and they shouldn't give credit where it's due. Fans who think just anyone can coach a team to the playoffs deserve owners who won't pay for premium. No one told Parcells that he had to go, he left on his own and if he stuck around they would have been paying him on what he did in the past and not even what he did for Dallas at anytime that he was there. If he expressed an interest to coach here some of you guys would want him because he's Parcells . You'd forget that he was a wishy-washy coach he appeared to be in Dallas. Why does he get credit for being a genius when his best years were long ago. Blame the fans who clamor for the recycled coaches who won before they came to their town and who's done nothing since he got to their town. The only way we'll be 8-8 is because uppermanagement and ownership won't take care of who got them this far. Ownership in other cities take chances with new talent at Coach and reward them for just signing on the dotted line. when they win something they should be paid btter. You guys had 21 years to get this far and you don't even see how you got here. There isn't much difference between sheep and fans. GO BEARS!!!