Bears happy when on field, even if some are disgruntled off it

The reports of a brewing mutiny in the Bears’ lockerroom have been greatly exaggerated.

Yes, there are players unhappy with their paychecks and their playing time. It would be difficult to imagine any season in which that weren’t the case.

But there is no plan afoot to force coach Lovie Smith or even general manager Jerry Angelo walk the plank while the team is in England — especially not Smith.

“Management and players is different than coaches and players,” said Lance Briggs, who has been vocal about his request for more money since training camp. “Lovie doesn’t negotiate our contracts; our agents do. And Bears management, they negotiate contracts. So when we deal with our coaches and Lovie, Lovie gets us prepared to win games.”

Brian Urlacher has had contract issues in the past, but he says there’s a simple way to avoid having money concerns affect on-field performance.

“My agent handles that,” Urlacher said. “It’s not an issue for me.

“There’s a business side. There’s a football side. They’re two separate things. All we can do is play and go out there and do the best we can do and hopefully that will take care of itself.”

Briggs has been one of the more outspoken players over the years when it comes to money matters — a few years and many millions of dollars ago, he vowed never to play another down for the Bears — but he seems to have softened his stance in the past few days.

“We might have unhappy players,” Briggs said. “But we don’t have an unhappy locker room.”

Briggs was asked the obvious question: How is that possible?

“If you ask your boss for a raise and your boss says, ‘No,’ but you love your job, you still continue to do the job that you love and allow for the business side,” he said. “When the boss decides it’s time for him to give you that raise, he’ll give you that raise.

“You have to deal with it, right? We’re all men. At the end of the day, it’s us who have to take care of our homes. No one else. It’s us. I understand everyone’s situation and what they have to go through, and that’s something that everybody in the locker room understands.”

Safety Chris Harris went from starter to inactive in six days, less than a year after he was a second-team all-pro player and tied for the team lead in interceptions. He requested a trade but that didn’t happen before Tuesday’s deadline. For now, he’s No. 2 behind Major Wright at strong safety.

What now?

“I’m here,” he said. “So the only thing that really matters right now is me coming out here, being a part of this team and trying to help this team win. I’m a competitor so I’m going to do everything right, everything in my power to get back out on the field.”

The reason given by Smith for Harris being inactive last Sunday was that Harris did not have a role on special teams, which is required of most backups. It was unclear whose decision it was that Harris not play on special teams, but Smith left no doubt when he was asked about it.

“Players don’t make decisions around here,” Smith said. “Every decision is my decision. When I say mine, I’m talking about our coaching staff based on what we see on the football field.

“Nothing’s changed around here. We haven’t changed any policies or anything like that. Every player on our football team knows exactly how we make decisions, and what it’s based on. That should answer any question you have about anything around here.”

With the way Bears safeties have played musical chairs the past seven seasons, it’s not far-fetched to imagine Harris back in the starting lineup at some point.

“You can tell nothing here is really set in stone at the safety positions,” Harris said. “So hopefully I’m back out there at some point in time in the season.”

Ultimately, players’ performance on the field will decide their playing time, not coaches. And the market will determine compensation.

“It’s going to work out,” Briggs said. “I don’t know how it’s going to work out, but it will.”

Hopefully for the Bears it will, and a victory Sunday would help, since winning seems to cure most problems. But if this season heads south, it will become much more difficult to keep the football and business sides separate.

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