Urlacher threatens to retire

Only special occasions call for two posts on one day, but I'm not sure this whole Urlacher situation qualifies as such. There's no way he's going to retire, and the Bears aren't going to trade him. Unlike some people commenting over here, I don't think doing this make Urlacher a terrible person. Clearly, he's outplayed his contract, and it's always better for the money to be in the player's pockets rather than the owners. Right? A few quick thoughts:

- Urlacher's response was basically that Mulligan made up the story. That can't be the case. I'm sure Urlacher never wanted for is threats to be made public, but you can bet that these are things he's discussed with his agent. They're probably more scare tactics than anything else, but this wouldn't have been reported if it didn't happen. Only bloggers make stuff up.

- A parallel for this situation: Scottie Pippen. Both signed long term deals when they were relatively young because they were seeking security from the franchise. Both complained when the salary cap skyrocketed and lesser players were making more money than them. A lot of fans would say 'tough cookies', but the whole Pippen situation worked out terribly for the Bulls. It got Jordan pissed and was one of the big reasons that the dynasty ended prematurely (I don't really think this is the case, but it could be) and that the Bulls couldn't attract any decent free agents with their loads of cap space (Ron Mercer doesn't count as decent).

- Reasons the Bears should give Urlacher a new contract:

a) To avoid long term damage to their reputation like what happened to the Bulls. The McCaskey's are already known for being cheap, you don't want something like this to drive prospective players and agents away from the Bears.

b) Unlike the NBA, contracts aren't guarenteed in the NFL. Of course, it should probably be the other way around, but that's another topic for another day. If Urlacher's injuries are really affecting his performance after a few years, just cut him. No biggie.

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I had links in here but they aren't showing up, so just go to the Sun-Times or Trib to read the actual story if you haven't already.