Here’s hoping the Bears understand the difference between run and pass better than they interpret the difference between voluntary and mandatory.
The current “Organized Team Activities” are declared through negotiations with the NFL Players Association as voluntary. If you want to keep your job under coach Lovie Smith, however, voluntary means mandatory. Army language is similar.
By demoting running back Thomas Jones and linebacker Lance Briggs to second team for the mini-camp, which really is mandatory, Smith was only trying to send a message–both to the players who attend the OTAs and to those who don’t.
Bears general manager Jerry Angelo said rules aren’t as important as “team building.”
It often works, because the NFL means Not For Long for coaches, players and general managers alike. So teams make up their own rules as they go. If they backfire, they backfire. The Bears already appear to be proceeding without Jones and Briggs, two pretty good players.
