League breaking down into haves, have-nots
Luckily for struggling Bears, lowly Browns paying visit today
Nobody likes a bully. There can be little appreciation for those who use strength or power to harm and intimidate the weak. Unless, of course, you're talking about the NFL.
Morality goes out the window in pro football, where the preferred tactic is to rub snow in the face of an opponent, kick 'em when they're down and offer a smelly armpit of solace.
A week after helping Cedric Benson up and returning the shoe he left lodged in their collective facemasks, the Bears welcome the woeful Cleveland Browns to Soldier Field today. The formula for victory is simple: Jump on them early, keep a foot on their throats, win at all costs.
''It humbles you a little bit, brings you back down, and you realize that you can't take any week for granted,'' quarterback Jay Cutler said of the Bears' shameful 45-10 loss last week against the Cincinnati Bengals. ''Anybody in the NFL can beat you at any time. It's a long season, though. We've got a lot of games ahead of us.''
Cutler used virtually the same expression twice in the same news conference last week, calling on the old ''on any given Sunday'' cliche to define the threat at hand.
''Any given week, anybody can beat anybody, especially in the NFL,'' Cutler said. ''Everyone's got talent. The Cleveland Browns get paid to play football, too. We can't take this for granted. ... We need to get back on track.''
Poppycock. The NFL isn't an ''on any given Sunday'' league anymore. Parity has turned into parody. A system carefully designed to reward losing in the form of higher draft picks and increased talent suddenly has come apart at the seams.
''There is a little more separation,'' offensive coordinator Ron Turner said. ''I have no idea why. It may be one of those things where it's just the way it fell this year. But that is the way it is.''
The Indianapolis Colts, Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints are 6-0, marking the first time since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger that three teams are unbeaten this late in a season. The top four teams in the league, including the Minnesota Vikings (6-1), are a combined 24-1. The bottom four teams in the league -- the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-7), St. Louis Rams (0-7), Tennessee Titans (0-6) and either the Browns or Kansas City Chiefs (1-6) -- are a combined 1-26.
And while the Bears have spent the week praising the Browns for some close losses, it's not horseshoes or a hand-grenade fight. Coming close means nothing. And not a lot of teams are coming close. The average margin of victory in the NFL this season is 14 points, and six games in Week 7 were decided by 28 or more points. That's a record for the salary-cap era, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Believe it or not, the lack of parity is killing Las Vegas bookmakers, who are having a hard time getting a balance of wagers on both opponents. Bookmakers get paid on the vigorish, and the idea of a betting line is to promote gambling by attracting wagers on both teams. That's why the Bears are favored by 13½ points this week.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported this week that the Buccaneers, Rams and Browns are a combined 6-15 against the spread, while the Chiefs and Oakland Raiders are a combined 5-9. Nobody is betting on the underdogs anymore, so the lines gradually are being inflated, with the Browns-Bears game perhaps an example of that. Experts say that while betting lines rarely are set higher than 14 points, don't be surprised if spreads extend to 17 or 20 points if this keeps up.
Why is there such a disparity between the top and bottom teams this season? It's a function of instability in losing organizations and continuity in winning ones. Coaching changes and restructured front offices have led to roster turnover in places such as Cleveland, Tampa Bay, St. Louis and Kansas City.
With a new coach in Eric Mangini and a new general manager in George Kokinis, the Browns opened the season with 29 players who weren't with the team last season and wound up trading another in former first-round draft pick Braylon Edwards.
Former Browns general manager Phil Savage recently teed off on the new brain trust during an appearance in Alabama, saying: ''They took what we did have going there, and they just dismantled that even further. We left two quarterbacks [Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn] behind that both seem ruined right now.''
The Bears couldn't care less, of course. They just need a victory in the worst way. And while no style points are given in the NFL, beating a team up instead of just beating them is a great way to win.
Mike Mulligan and Sun-Times colleague Brian Hanley host ''The Mully and Hanley Show'' from 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays on WSCR-AM (670).