Bear Digest

How the Bears Should Get Back at the NFL for Unjust Comp Pick Ruling

The NFL did an obvious injustice to the Bears by walking all over the Rooney Rule after Atlanta hired Ian Cunningham, so here are methods for retribution.
Gene Chamberlain|
Maybe the Bears shouldn't be so friendly with Roger Goodell on draft day after what happened with the comp picks.
Maybe the Bears shouldn't be so friendly with Roger Goodell on draft day after what happened with the comp picks. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The NFL has improperly denied the Bears two third-round draft picks that they are properly due for complying with the Rooney Rule, and did it willfully based on a loophole.

A rule designed by the NFL to correct improper minority hiring practices of the past will be ignored by the NFL even though former Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham has become the person calling all personnel shots in Atlanta.

If this was the purpose of the rule, then why even create a rule like this? It makes a sham of a serious situation.

It's an entirely illogical ruling and one detrimental to the league's image. Because it was a rule made by the league to help correct its own racist hiring pattern, seeking out a loophole to avoid implementing it says something nasty about the league. Perhaps wearing hoods instead of helmets is exaggerating things. Maybe not.

This is the final verdict, however, and the Bears would probably want to avoid standing around whining about it at the risk of looking greedy.

After all, at the combine GM Ryan Poles made it clear the Bears believe the way they groomed Cunningham as a personnel executive and helped him get hired as Atlanta's top personnel decision maker, is the way they want to do business regardless of whether the league is giving out doggy biscuits in the form of draft picks.

Poles and the Bears probably deserve comp picks merely for saying something this noble.

Getting the picks should have merely been something the league did for them, but astonishingly didn’t because they consider Matt Ryan's useless role to be head decision maker. There are armchairs at Falcons headquarters more responsible for personnel decisions than Ryan.

Short of wearing black arm bands at league functions all year in protest of what happened, there's apparently not much the Bears can do about it. The comp picks are public, and they're getting nothing.

Because it's such an egregious act, the Bears really should not let this one go. It's important for the league’s future.

They need to stand up to the league to help support the intent of the Rooney Rule, but they're limited in what can be done if they want to protect their own image.

Here's what they should consider in order to continue rubbing the nose of the NFL in this pile it has made.

1. Token resistance

These would be things meant to embarrass the league even more for improperly denying the picks than it has already embarrassed itself. They're more acts designed to call attention to what happened and keep it fresh in the public's memory.

  • Do not participate in the owners meetings at the end of the month.
  • Replace the NFL shield sticker on Bears helmets with a Lady Justice sticker all season.
  • When the draft is held and guest presenters come on stage after Round 1 to announce picks as is common, instead of former players or Bears fans doing it the team should bring in victims who have won huge lawsuits as a reminder to the league of what happens when people are wronged.  Or else they could invite Colin Kaepernick to announce the picks.
  • At the NFL draft, when Goodell stands on the stage and calls out the Bears' first-round pick, the pick should go on the stage but refuse to shake the commissioner's hand. The draft pick should stand with his back facing Goodell, exactly like Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) does to Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) in the film Gladiator. Will Goodell shout: "Draft pick, how dare you show your back to me?!" Probably.

Call for a vote

If they do participate in owners meeting, call for a vote of all owners. Should they receive the picks under the Rooney Rule, yes or no. Then, make public all the names of owners who voted against them being awarded picks for helping a minority member rise in the ranks to become head Falcons personnel decision maker. 

Lawyer up

They could try suing the league but that’s somewhat like standing around whining about the situation. It’s going to eventually remove the Bears from entirely innocent victims and put them in a bad light as greedy mercenaries.

In this case, maybe a better message could be sent by becoming joinders to the class-action lawsuit filed by Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores against the NFL, the one alleging racial discrimination in hiring practices.

At the very least, they could offer themselves up as witnesses in Flores' suit, testifying to the total insincerity of the league when it comes minority hiring practices through the Rooney Rule.

Drop the big one

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

The Bears want a stadium. The league always pays for a big chunk of the money to build the new stadiums, and then also awards at least one future Super Bowl to that team.

The ultimate revenge for the Bears would be to have the NFL give them money to build a stadium in Indiana, and then force the entire NFL world to come and visit beautiful Hammond, Ind. for a Super Bowl.

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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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