Steve Rosenbloom interprets what I thought were some fairly innocuous comments from former Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher for the Chicago Tribune:
And he does hate the Bears, or at least the quarterback and general manager. We know this because he didn’t use the quarterback’s or general manager’s name when talking about Phil Emery’s decision to give Jay Cutler that seven-year, $126 million contract.
“The thinking is, if you have a franchise quarterback, you hold onto them’’ Urlacher said. “It’s hard to find them in the NFL, and I think the GM there thought he had one, so he paid him like one.’’
The only thing Urlacher missed was “Fredo, you’re nothing to me now.’’
If you’re keeping score at home, not only did Urlacher refuse to utter either person’s name, but he refused to say that Cutler is a franchise quarterback, just that the GM thought he had one.
That’s code for no, Urlacher does not believe The Quarterback Who Must Not Be Named is elite at that position.
That’s also code for no, the General Manager Who Must Not Be Named doesn’t know what he’s doing at that position.
Hard to believe that there’s someone out there reading more into these sorts of comments than I typically do. But I don’t think Rosenbloom is wrong nor am I surprised. Urlacher will likely hold a grudge against the organization for a long time even though it doesn’t appear to be justified.