Dis Smithing

As always, there are multiple sides to every situation. Take Lovie Smith and his new contract negotiations. First, Smith fires Ron Rivera to maximize the leverage Smith has in the negotiations. Then, when the Bears show their typical lowball, Smith has his agent announce:

“We’re not close, we’re not encouraged, and based on where talks have gone recently, Lovie will be a free agent after next season. It would take an unforeseen breakthrough for this to get done. And we are being more than reasonable in this market.” - Frank Bauer

What Smith may fail to understand is that firing Rivera did not give Smith as much leverage as it appears. There is another head coach candidate who could come to Chicago on a moment’s notice who would make everyone forget that Lovie Smith was ever here. That person was a teammate of Rivera’s on the Bears.

That guy is Mike Singletary. Barring a change in this story in the next few weeks, I predict Samurai Mike to be the coach in 2008.

What is troubling about this story from the Bears side is several things.

First, the Bears should already know if they want Lovie Smith to be their coach for the next four years. If they don’t want him back, they should have fired him already. By waiting this long, you screw up any incoming coach’s ability to hire assistants as the pool of available talent has been absorbed by other teams making hires. They’ve also done Smith a disservice by not allowing him to find gainful employment elsewhere at a salary commensurate with his experience and performance.

Additionally, if the team doesn’t want Lovie back, they’ve done harm to the franchise by keeping him for 2007. If Jerry Angelo has determined that Smith’s in-game brain farts are such that they hold the team’s success back, then why wait for his contract to expire to get rid of him? In this era of tradable coaches, find a team and get a draft pick for Lovie. Then, move on and get the coach who you think would be better.

On the other side, if the Bears do indeed want him back, then being cheap is insane. This is a team that was gifted $450 million in taxpayer money in support of a business that has minimal financial impact on the economy. This corporate welfare has tripled the value of the McCaskey family’s investment in the team and grossly inflated their ability to take cash out of the business. It’s not like the team can’t afford to pay a head coach more than at least one other team (as of right now, 31 teams pay their head coach more than do the Bears).

Even more, if the team were to give Smith his market value starting in 2008, that equates to a salary of about $5 million per year from 2008 through 2011. So, let’s compare the four year extension that Smith turned down prior to 2007 versus his 2007 salary plus the first three years of his desired new salary.

Had Smith accepted the extension, he would have earned approximately $12 million over the 2007 through 2010 seasons. Under a “new” contract, Smith made $1.45 million in 2007 ($1.5 plus $15 million for years 2008 through 2010. That means, under a new contract, the Bears compensation to Smith would be $4.5 million more than what he would have cost a year ago.

That’s $1.2 million per year. That’s pocket change for a business that, according to published figures, generated operating profit of $51.5 million in 10 business days.

Now, there is one other angle that does fit what’s going on. It could be that Ted Phillips believes that no coach is worth more than $3 million per year and that a head coach is nothing more than the face that uses the talent provided by the real team guru, the General Manager. That would be a massive mistake for this franchise to assume that simply anyone could coach the Bears to a high level of success. This is not the early 90’s Cowboys that even Barry Switzer could coach to a title.

You can convince me that Lovie Smith is not the right guy for the job and isn’t worth $5 million per year. You cannot convince me that this team would be as successful under John Smith, Larry Smith, Dean Smith or Kate Smith.

The Bears have emerged from the despair of the Wanny (and the G.R.O.W. International) years. Management could put them right back in another dark age if they are not careful.