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It’s obvious the Chicago Bears learned from their brief rift with former linebacker Brian Urlacher and plan to try to avoid a similar situation in dealing with aging free agents Lance Briggs and Charles Tillman.  Urlacher became a free agent in March 2013, and when negotiations on bringing him back to Halas Hall for a 14th season broke down, the organization issued a statement announcing the sides couldn’t come to an agreement. The whole situation led to a strained relationship between the organization and star player which was later mended by team chairman George McCaskey.
If the team parts ways with Briggs and Tillman, as is widely expected, McCaskey plans to handle their departures better than the organization dealt with Urlacher. “Anytime a player leaves the team you want to make sure that it’s handled in a respectable manner and that’s even for an undrafted rookie who’s there for three weeks of training camp,” McCaskey said during the NFL owners meetings, via Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times. “These are human beings, these are people. They’re working their butts off trying to make the team. So you want to handle it in a dignified and respectable manner.” Two days after negotiations between Urlacher and the Bears ended, the linebacker told "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000 he would have appreciated at least a phone call from the team before it sent out the news release to announce the sides had shut down talks. Nearly a month after talks between the team and Urlacher broke down, former general manager Phil Emery said he harbored “absolutely” no regrets for how Chicago handled the failed negotiations. The Bears’ best and final offer to Urlacher was a one-year deal that maxed out at $2 million. “It was a very straightforward process,” Emery said at that the time. “We had a very honest and open exchange between Brian and his representatives, his agents. There was no lack of clarity. There were no surprises during this period.” Don’t expect a similar situation to play with Tillman and Briggs. Briggs visited the San Francisco 49ers on Monday, and the Bears have reportedly told the linebacker he won’t be brought back for the 2015 season. “If somebody’s had a distinguished [career], yeah, that’s certainly with Charles and Lance, you want to be properly respectable of their accomplishments and let them know, if it works out, great, and if it doesn’t work out that, as far as we’re concerned, they’ll always be Bears,” McCaskey said.
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