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Bear Digest

Bears Owner Spells Out Precisely Why the Team Deserves Comp Picks

George McCaskey clearly and effectively described why the Bears qualify for compensatory draft picks under the Rooney Rule after Ian Cunningham's departure.
Gene Chamberlain|
Falcons GM Ian Cunningham addresses the media at the combine, a duty preserved for teams' top personnel decision maker every year.
Falcons GM Ian Cunningham addresses the media at the combine, a duty preserved for teams' top personnel decision maker every year. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Chicago Bears owner/board chairman George McCaskey very effectively argued his team's side in the case of the stolen compensatory draft picks.

In fact, if you listen to what McCaskey said and what has already happend, the only way the NFL can refuse to give the draft picks to the Bears is by pure obstinance and ignorance.

Under the Rooney Rule, the Bears should get two third-round picks because assistant general manager Ian Cunningham left GM Ryan Poles' supervision with the Bears for the general manager job with Atlanta and is a minority member.

The GM in Atlanta really is the head personnel decision-maker. After leaving the Bears, Cunningham has made Atlanta's decisions on free agents, conducts all aspects of the draft and made trades. They even hired an assistant GM under him.

Matt Ryan, meanwhile, was hired in Atlanta to a new position not calling personnel shots, and is not running the Falcons' show. Yet the Bears were denied their picks.

"We think what we did is what the league wants every member club to do," McCaskey told reporters at the owners meetings in Arizona. "We identified diverse talent, we recruited him, we created a position for him. We allowed him access to the general manager role to work hand in hand with Ryan Poles. We allowed him to make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes. We gave him supervisory duties.

"We gave him training. We made him ready to be a GM in the NFL, and he's getting his opportunity and we're thrilled for him."

McCaskey, Poles, and president Kevin Warren met with commissioner Roger Goodell in New York at the league office and made an appeal after the original decision to deny them the picks.

When there will be a decision is unknown but it needs to be soon because the draft begins April 23.

"I don't want to speculate on that," McCaskey told reporters. "I mean, I think we made a pretty compelling case and we'll jut have to see what the decision is."

It seems completely ridiculous to many Bears fans and ever disinterested observers that the league could have a Rooney Rule rewarding teams who develop minority coaches and personnel people but then not give out the compensatory draft picks required when a team meets the rule's terms.

"The league has to think big picture," McCaskey said, trying to explain why it could be denied. "What are the consequences of us ruling in particular way in this particular case, and how would that be applied to the other 30 teams in the future.

"So it's a big question. It's not a narrow inquiry. They have to broaden the score of their inquiry."

The strangest part of the denial is how all three Falcons parties involved—Cunningham, Ryan, and owner Arthur Blank—came down in favor of the Bears meeting the requirements of the Rooney Rule. McCaskey hasn't heard an outcry against the Bears or for them, one way or the other.

"We haven't really lobbied other teams' support," McCaskey said. "You've heard the public comments (by) Arthur Blank, Matt Ryan and himself, but I don't think that the league in making its decision looks at the comments of any particular individual to our friends of the media in forming the basis of the decision."

McCaskey put the Bears above the fray, while still believing the rule can work the way the NFL intends if applied correctly.

"The Bears' philosophy is we're committed to diversity and we will continue our efforts," McCaskey said. "We're very proud of what we did with Ian. And we're very much looking forward to the next opportunity to do something similar."

The arguments in the case all remain the same. The Bear are essentially right.

The NFL's denial of the picks, regardless of how they look at the grand scheme of things, is a violation of the spirit of their own rule. They're nitpicking over a wording loophole for absolutely no reason.

It's not as if the pick is taken from some other team and given to the Bears each of the next two drafts. It just is created, and then awarded at the end of Round 3.

Or in this case, the picks haven't been awarded, and correcting it would be a simple and just act.

Ironically, during the owners meetings, Goodell told the media that the league stands by the Rooney Rule even though it is being attacked as ineffective, because the diversity it brings is a "benefit" to the NFL.

It can't benefit the NFL when it isn't correctly applied.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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