Saturday, April 30, 2011
Posted: 10:14 a.m.
By John Mullin
CSNChicago.com
Maybe the Baltimore Ravens really owe the Bears a thank-you instead of thinking the Bears owe them a draft pick.
Maybe the Ravens should cut the Bears a check.
Or maybe the trade snafu between the Bears and Baltimore Ravens was really just a matter of some sort of justice-scale balancing.
Somehow you have to think that Mike Tice probably thinks so.
It was Tice as Minnesota Vikings head coach in 2003 who thought a first-round deal was done with the Ravens and GM Ozzie Newsome. The Ravens didnt get their part of the trade completed with a phone call to the league, the trade didnt happen, Minnesota fell down a couple of places and the Vikings didnt get the draft picks they thought they had along with the player they wanted, Oklahoma State defensive tackle Kevin Williams.
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Tice was miffed and he didnt even get so much as an apology from Newsome, whose comment was interesting: A deal is not a deal until I talk to Joel Bussert, and I never talked to Joel Bussert.
This was the same Joel Bussert who never got the Bears call Thursday night.
Bears GM Jerry Angelo offered an apology to the Ravens for the foul-up that resulted in the non-trade between the two teams, the Bears getting Gabe Carimi without giving the Ravens a fourth-round pick, and the Ravens missing their turn and falling behind the Kansas City Chiefs in the draft order.
Commissioner Roger Goodell encouraged Angelo to give the Ravens a make-good on the deal and send them the pick they originally were going to. Angelo stood firm that the apology was all Baltimore was getting.
The only thing Im going to say is they have rules when you do something wrong, not when people make mistakes, Angelo said Friday night. A mistake was made, no rule was broken, okay, lets just make that clear here, and as Ive said last night, I think we made the proper amends from our part and certainly there was no intent other than to do the best we could and it just didnt work out.
Angelo isnt worried about his reputation or that of the Bears either, for that matter.
No, there isnt anyone in this media room that hasnt made a mistake, he said. We made an honest mistake, no more than that; theres total transparency. You make your apologies and we did. If there are consequences, you accept those consequences and then you move on. So be it. It wont be my last.
For that matter as well, maybe the Ravens should at least appreciate that the Bears saved them some money. Baltimore got the player it wanted in Colorado cornerback Jimmy Smith but got him at No. 27 instead of 26, meaning a notch lower on the pay scale for rookies, whatever that ends up being based on negotiations for the upcoming collective bargaining agreement.
At last years rookie rates, the difference between the five-year contracts given to the Nos. 26 and 27 picks was about 600,000.
So, wonder if Ozzie Newsome or Ravens owner Steve Biscotti send the Bears a thank-you note, you know, with one of those white gift envelopes that have that little round hole where only the face on the money shows?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
John "Moon" Mullin is CSNChicago.com's Bears Insider, and appears regularly on Bears Postgame Live and Chicago Tribune Live. Follow Moon on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Bears information.