Williams Was Hurt...Surprise

Well, the Bears had been insisting that Bears rookie OT Chris Williams didn't have a pre-existing condition that led to his recent injury, but as Brad Biggs tells the story:

"I had a herniated disc before I got here," Williams said after watching practice Sunday afternoon at Halas Hall. "We knew that. Everyone knew that. It just was a thing where most people it doesn't affect. It wasn't affecting me so if nothing is broke, you don't fix it. Then something happened in practice that second day, the disc started moving and that caused some problems."

[...]

The organization was [originally] adamant that Williams was not damaged goods when he was drafted and that the injury was a new one. For two weeks, the company line in camp was that he was suffering from back spasms. It took a while to get to the root of the problem. The Bears have been embarrassed to the point that they have been doing spin control since and worked over every house organ they could find. Williams also disputed a published report that he injured his back this summer in preparing for training camp.

Just so we're clear, Mr. Angelo: we don't believe anything you say. Time and again it's been made obvious that you will go beyond normal spin to the point of out-and-out lies when speaking to the press/public. The current Bears regime, when it comes to mistakes, will do anything it can to avoid admitting said mistakes.

One wonders how many more years of this we'll be forced to endure before the team brings in new management that has, y'know, some ethics.

Leadership Matters

Years ago, when the Chicago Bulls were rattling off multiple championships during the Michael Jordan era, then-GM Jerry Krause said, "Players and coaches alone don't win championships; organizations win championships." He was roundly ridiculed for this; it was seen as a snotty attempt to take credit for all the championships, especially as the one player on the teams Krause didn't acquire was Jordan.

Whatever his motivation for saying it, he was right. Hundreds or thousands of decisions led to those championships, and while Michael Jordan was perhaps the most significant piece to the puzzle, let's remember that he played for many years in the NBA before and after those championships.

As a leader, getting people to follow you requires more than mere authority. A leader must demonstrate that s/he means what s/he says; that decisions are not arbitrary nor written in sand. Many folks new to management want their subordinates to like them, but that's not required (or even advisable, in many circumstances). Most people want their bosses to simply be fair and consistent and to make some sort of sense.

Woe betide the Cincinnati Bengals, then. Yahoo Sports lays out the details, but in brief, WR Chris Henry was released early this year after punching a college student and breaking the college student's car window with a beer bottle. At the time, owner Mike Brown seemed done:

"His conduct can no longer be tolerated," Brown said at the time. "The Bengals tried for an extended period of time to support Chris and his potentially bright career. We had hoped to guide him toward an appropriate standard of personal responsibility that this community would support and that would allow him to play in the NFL. ... But those efforts end today, as we move on with what is best for our team."

Given that this was not Henry's first (or second, or third...) serious problem with the law, the decision made tremendous sense. But now Brown has flip-flopped:

Henry signed a two-year deal Tuesday with the team that let him go after he was arrested for the fifth time, a decision that seemed to mark a change in philosophy for owner Mike Brown. Instead, it was an aberration. The Bengals took him back at Brown's behest.

This isn't about the moral issue. I'm not passing judgment on Chris Henry, though clearly he needs some kind of help, and continuing to enable him isn't going to fix anything. This is about the message being sent, and it says a few things:

• Problem players can continue to be problem players and will likely get multiple chances, even if told otherwise; as such, there's no incentive to start behaving
• Players who don't have these problems should expect no reward for staying out of trouble
• Whatever management says today could change tomorrow; believe nothing

The Bengals are going to be a mess. Mark my words.