How many Bears will skip "Mandatory Mini Camp" and why?
NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, union president and Cleveland Browns center J.C. Tretter and their leadership team have spent the last two months encouraging as many players as possible to skip all voluntary work and fight to change multiple workplace routines with a serious misinformation campaign. At the heart of the NFLPA's claims is the false premise that injuries were down last season with no off-season whatsoever, and that players shouldn't be asked to be around team facilities with all the uncertainty due to COVID-19. According to Sportico, a partner of The Harvard Sports Analysis Collective, injuries were up 14% last season over the average of the 10 prior seasons. It reports that before last season the 2015 campaign set the record with play being stopped for injuries 786 times. That record was broken last season with 801 injuries. According to Sharp Football Analysis, injuries were up 16% last year over the first half of the season. From 2017-2019 there was an average of 477 injuries causing a player to leave the field over the first half of each season. In 2020, it was 555. By every measure I can find, injuries were up last year. While that is not proof in of itself the lost off-season was responsible, it is clear proof limiting or eliminating off-season work is not beneficial, and last year and in the lockout summer of 2011, injuries were up significantly. With that, the dramatic decrease in cases and serious illness as vaccines have been rolled out over the last few months, and with the rest of the country now racing toward a full reopening, the NLFPA using virus fears as a reason players should be excused from or refuse to participate in off-season work as allowed in the collective-bargaining agreement is a bad joke. Let's save for another day our opinions on why the NFLPA is doing all it can to disrupt the off-season. It would take a book rather than a column for me to offer mine. But I am intrigued by why the local team I cover, the Chicago Bears, has chosen to move forward with its "mandatory veteran minicamp" Tuesday while others -- including the Colts, Eagles, 49ers and Texans -- have canceled theirs either in a bow to NFLPA pressure or for other reasons of their own. There is a false narrative out there that Bears general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy somehow reset the pressure to win and keep their jobs by drafting Justin Fields. Bears chairman George McCaskey couldn't have been any clearer last January in stating he believes the only measure that matters is if his team and organization are improving and moving in the right direction when it comes to the continued employment of his GM and coach. Coming off an 8-8, one-and-done playoff season, the only way that happens for Pace and Nagy is if they win now. As expectations rose and fell last season, I regularly reminded folks of the uber difficult circumstances coaches and players were working under due to COVID-19 protocols. It left an open question as to how good or bad all 32 teams, including the Bears, were due to all the distractions. It is hard to imagine anything more important for these Bears right now with two new quarterbacks and a young and inexperienced rookie defensive coordinator to get as much on-field work as possible between now and Sept. 12. Tuesday's big reveal should be fascinating.