Running back Edgar Bennett started 15 games for Green Bay in 1996 when the Packers went to the Super Bowl, averaging 4.0 yards a carry and catching 31 passes. He scored four touchdowns in the Packers’ three playoff games.
The Super Bowl victory over New England was the last game he played as a Packer. He missed all of the 1997 regular season with a torn Achilles’ tendon injured in the first exhibition game, became a free agent and signed with the Bears before this season. Watching the seconds wind down in the Super Bowl was a lifetime experience.
“I just remember after the clock finally ticked off, I felt I’d finally accomplished the ultimate goal,” Bennett said. “We always wouldn’t quite win in high school, or in college we (Florida State) would almost get there but get beat by Miami.
“We were always bridesmaids, never brides, but then we finally won. It was special for me because of the role my parents played in it. I had a great time, but it meant more to give my mom a nice Super Bowl pendant and my dad a ring.”
Money matters: Although he hasn’t played for the Packers, Rick Mirer’s move to Green Bay undoubtedly will turn out better than ex-teammate Raymont Harris’. The Packers released Harris on Tuesday.
Instead of accepting a $2.462 million transition-tag contract from the Bears for one year, Harris insisted on pushing for a long-term deal while still rehabilitating the leg he broke late last year.
But the market yielded no such offers. Harris, who would have competed with Bennett for the starting job and whose signing would have eliminated the need to draft Curtis Enis with the No. 5 pick last April, wound up accepting a $1.3 million package consisting of a $500,000 signing bonus and $800,000 base.
A year in Chicago might have allowed him an opportunity to play his career back into shape. It worked for Erik Kramer, who did a one-year deal in 1997. But Harris wound up sitting on the bench behind Darick Holmes and Dorsey Levens. He will be back in free agency again next year.
Mirer chose not to accept the $1.42 million the Bears were to pay him for 1998, forcing his release by not agreeing to a restructured contract. He then signed a four-year deal worth $8.55 million with the Packers in August. He was the No. 2 quarterback for four games but has yet to take a snap for the Packers.
His Green Bay deal pays him an $800,000 signing bonus and $200,000 base salary in 1998 and a $500,000 base in 1999, meaning that Mirer stood to make nearly as much in one year with the Bears as he stands to make in two years with Green Bay ($1.5 million). Mirer’s deal jumps to a $2.5 million base plus $1 million roster bonuses in 2000 and 2001, although he is unlikely to be a Packer past 1999 at those prices.
Cases of attitude: The issue of Minnesota linebacker Dwayne Rudd’s taunting of the Bears likely will be around until the next time the teams play. Tales of action and reaction tend to have long lives.
Dick Butkus once started pummeling an opponent who handed him the ball after scoring. A Bears-Cowboys game was ended early when the Bears went after the Cowboys for taunting.
“There’s one thing you don’t do to an athlete,” said former Bears linebacker Doug Buffone, who played in the shortened Bears-Cowboys game. “You can beat him, kick him, knock his teeth out. But you don’t embarrass him.”
