Chicago Bears and Coach Lovie Smith working on a contract extension
The Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith is really being shown a lot of love. The team is getting close to a contract extension, which will most likely be completed in a couple of weeks.
Starting with Smith and the Bears, the team wishes to extend Smith’s contract because he just one season left on his contract after a spectacular 2010 National Football League season. He led the Bears all the way to the National Football Conference Championship
Game and also to the NFC North title. He wanted a contract extension because both he and the team do not want him to become a lame duck next season.
Jerry Angelo, general manager for the team, still has two years left on his contract. Smith’s extension will keep him around as long as Angelo and most likely including one more guaranteed year. It is reported that Smith’s extension will be for two more
years, as he made 4.8-million-dollars during the 2010 season, with a 5.5-million-dollar paycheck not out of the question for the 2011 season.
The Bears lost in the NFC Championship Game to the Green Bay Packers, whose head coach, Mike McCarthy, was reportedly signed a three year contract extension, which will fill his pockets with 5-million-dollars per year, after they won Super Bowl XLV over
the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Baltimore Ravens also made it to the playoffs, but lost in the divisional round to the Steelers. Their head coach, Jim Harbaugh, has also had his contract extended three years for 12-million-dollars total. Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England
Patriots, remains as the highest paid coach in the NFL with a 6-million-dollar annual salary.
This is the third time that the Bears have made it to the playoffs in the past six years, as they had also made it to the Super Bowl in 2006, but lost to the Indianapolis Colts, 29-17.
Smith started his coaching career in 1996 as linebackers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After spending five years with the Bucs, he was hired as the defensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams. He took the Rams from allowing 29.4 points per game, the
worst in the NFL, to allowing only 17.1 average points per game. They fought their way to Super Bowl XXXVI but lost to the New England Patriots in one of the biggest Super Bowl upsets ever.
He was hired by the Bears in 2004 after d**k Jauron was fired. Smith had a troublesome first season with new systems on both sides of the ball, as well as many injuries, including one to their starting quarterback, Rex Grossman. Even though they finished
the season with a 5-11 record, the Bears improved from being the 22nd team in the NFL in 2003 to being 13th in 2004.
The Bears had an 11-5 record in the 2010 season.
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