Briggs Agent Speaks Out

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Mar 28, 2007 3:45PM

The name Drew Rosenhaus sends shivers down the spines of football executives -- he's known to be quite the difficult agent to deal with. And he happens to represent the Bears' Lance Briggs, which certainly isn't making the situation between him and the Bears any easier.

Briggs had remained fairly quite in recent weeks, following his trade demands and promise to hold out the entire 2007 season. He did meet with Bears officials on Monday, and refused to agree to their offer to remove the "franchise" tag following the 2007 season if he would play.

With the NFL meeting in Tempe, Rosenhaus has been actively trying to broker a trade for his client. He has proposed that the Bears send Briggs to the Washington Redskins in return for swapping first round picks -- which would move the Bears up from 31st to 6th.

While Redskins' head coach admits to having discussions with the Bears about Briggs, Bears' GM Jerry Angelo doesn't seem to be in any hurry to trade the disgruntled linebacker. Does he think he can get a better deal in return for Briggs? Does he think Briggs will ultimately end up playing for the team?

Well, Briggs' claim that he will never play another down for the Bears softened a bit this week, as Rosenhaus is now claiming a 10 game holdout -- Briggs will play the final six games in order to acrue his league service time. Briggs and Rosey should have looked into that before making ultimatums. Backing down doesn't make them look any better. We're sure that the prorated amount of the $7.2 million he'd earn with the Bears next year -- a cool $2.7 million -- doesn't hurt. Afterall, we don't know that we want Lance having to take out loans or going without because he's not working. It's not like an NFL player making hundreds of thousands of dollars can afford to save any for a rainy day.

Image via LanceBriggs.com.