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It's hard to imagine that a crowd of millionaire athletes eager for a night out wouldn't be allowed into a nightclub, but that's what happened when a group of about 20 Bears players showed up at Angels & Kings Nightclub at 710 N. Clark to celebrate ''rookie night'' on Monday.

Although they had informed club personnel of their arrival, they were not allowed to enter.

''If it's a private event, let us know and we'll move on,'' linebacker Lance Briggs said. ''If it's not, let us in. We're paying customers, and I'm pretty sure on rookie night, you're going to get extra dough.''

A spokesperson for the club told the Sun-Times that an outside vendor hosts special events on Monday nights. The spokesperson apologized and said the club's relationship with the vendor has been terminated.

After being turned away, players went to another club.

''I don't know what happened,'' defensive lineman Israel Idonije said. ''We do rookie night every year. It's a lot of fun. It's a night for all the guys to get out and get together and enjoy themselves, have a good time. Angels & Kings is a great establishment. I've been there. Great people run that place. It was probably just a case of miscommunication.''

Adams wins courage award

Anthony Adams was voted the winner of the Ed Block Courage Award by his teammates. The award is presented to the one player on every team who best exemplifies sportsmanship, courage and serves as an inspiration to others.

Block was a longtime trainer of the Baltimore Colts whose foundation promotes the prevention of child abuse.

''It's great to win such a prestigious award and get voted by my teammates,'' Adams said. ''That makes a difference to get voted from a lot of the Bears' guys. It's great, man.''

No trip for Briggs

Thanks to the bye week, players were packing their bags after practice Thursday while preparing for a weekend away from Halas Hall. Briggs, however, said he would be back at team headquarters at 8 a.m. today to get treatment for a high ankle sprain that sidelined him against the Seahawks and for most of the game Sunday against the Redskins.

''He's feeling pretty confident,'' coach Lovie Smith said when asked about Briggs' availability for the game next Sunday against the Bills in Toronto. ''We are, too. We think we'll have all of our team ready to practice Monday or at least play on the weekend.''

Time to turn it up

Defensive players have been working on fundamentals this week while taking solace in the fact that all three of their losses have been in close games.

''We've had opportunities to win all those games,'' Idonije said. ''They've been really close and games that we should have won, and unfortunately we just didn't do enough. We hold on to that and knowing that we're going to be rested up in this third part of the season into the fourth [part], this is where playoff teams, championship teams, turn it up. We want to be in that mix, so we're ready to go to that next level and get better. We've done some good things, but we're looking to get better.''

Bear necessities

Several veterans, including quarterback Jay Cutler, did not fully participate in practice Thursday.