May Day

How fitting that the Bears released two veteran players on Sunday, which just so happened to be May Day.  Someone should try to explain the significance of that to the NFL players’ association.

“Both men did everything we asked of them,” Bears GM Ryan Pace said of now-departed safety Antrel Rolle and offensive lineman Matt Slauson.  "Part of growing as a team is making difficult decisions like the ones we made today.”  Who you crappin’, Ryan?  It was damn’ easy to make those cuts, given how the playing field tilts in your direction.

According to the Tribune, the Bears will save over $5 million against the salary cap.  I suspect Pace would cut his own mother to save that kind of money.  The players are fools to have accepted a cap, and they’re fools to go along in the charade of how much their deals are worth.  Virtually all baseball contracts are guaranteed.  With football, I doubt if anyone outside of MVP-type players gets guaranteed money.  What difference does it make?  Well, the casual fan is likely to confuse football with baseball.  Rolle had a three-year deal at just over $11 million.  In baseball, that money would be all his.  But Rolle plays a sport where he didn’t even get half.

Maybe if more fans knew that, they’d feel some sympathy for the players should they ever decide to walk out.  There’s only one way to find out.