Rozner: Chicago Bears' QBs will find much in common

Only the Chicago Bears would sign a free-agent quarterback and send him to their draft party to represent the team, and then take a quarterback high in the draft and hand him the keys to the franchise that night.

OK, maybe the Bears wouldn't be the only team to do it, but it takes a clown show to pull off a feat like that.

But when you have a family-owned business and the family doesn't know the business, you get the same mistakes over and over and over again.

Yup, 31 years now without a Super Bowl, which was right around the time Michael McCaskey decided he could run a football team.

So now they've hired a young GM, who upon arrival two years ago said the team was close. After 9 wins in two years, he has changed his tune and his story.

Now he says the team must rebuild. Well, Ryan Pace finally got that part right.

To his credit, Pace has since taken two major steps. He has nuzzled up next to owner George McCaskey, which ensures his future as long as he stays close, and he has begun to collect quarterbacks.

Pace has added several in the past few months. He paid Mike Glennon $18 million guaranteed based on 18 starts over four years in Tampa, where Glennon's team won five of those starts.

At that point, Pace had convinced McCaskey that Glennon was his guy, and that he might have to pay him $45 million of McCaskey money over three years - if he's good enough to hang around that long.

The Bears sent Glennon to their team draft party, and he was busy doing their public-relations work when Pace traded picks to move up one spot to grab Mitch Trubisky at No. 2, after convincing McCaskey that Trubisky - not Glennon - was actually his guy and worth any price.

So Glennon went from being Pace's guy to being just another guy.

Trubisky is now Pace's guy, having staked his reputation to this particular decision.

Glennon is reportedly unhappy about having been misled by the general manager, since Glennon had options and chose the Bears based on Pace's sales job.

And here's where we get to the ugly truth about the NFL.

For all the hot takes about what Glennon has a right to feel, or shouldn't have a right to feel, the truth is the NFL doesn't care about Mike Glennon.

It also doesn't care about Mitch Trubisky.

And neither does Ryan Pace.

They are now, or will be soon enough, merely ground-up meat for the carnivore that is the NFL, where concussions were forever a myth and pharmaceuticals eternally your friend.

Of course, Pace said whatever he had to in order to get Glennon here.

But Glennon is human. He has a right to feel betrayed. He's also getting $18 million this year for such duplicity.

If you feel sorry for him, fine. If you don't, fine.

Just know that for as much as Pace will move heaven and earth for Trubisky in order to make himself look good, the moment it suits his purposes, Pace will turn his back on Trubisky if that is the play of the day.

That's the essence of the NFL, the most violent of leagues and the least forgiving, where guaranteed contracts favor the few, where a short career and a shortened life of pain is the only real guarantee.

Ask Jim McMahon about his quality of life.

It's a filthy, corrupt business at its core, and if Glennon is now thinking only of himself he should not stop any time soon.

Maybe Glennon will be great and keep his job. Maybe Trubisky will be so good that he replaces Glennon quickly.

Given the fickle nature of unproven quarterbacks, no one knows the answer, least of all Pace.

So he collects quarterbacks. It's about time he started. Pace should continue that practice in the years to come if he's able to maintain his employment.

As for Glennon and Trubisky in the same QB room, they might become friends. They should, actually. There is much common ground here.

They are quarterbacks in a city that eats them alive, they are players in a league that discards them like three-day-old steak.

The sooner they understand they are simply passing through, the better off they will be.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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