New rules make Bears cautious

Don't expect to see Tank Johnson lining up for the Bears any time soon, but he'll remain on the active roster and might return to the field this season, perhaps in the playoffs.

That's the word from a league source who attributed the team's delay in announcing its plan for Johnson to the fact it still is working out details with the NFL office. Commissioner Roger Goodell was involved in discussions with the Bears on Monday.

''We have some things we would like to do, but we have to go through the league with everything,'' Bears coach Lovie Smith said. ''This goes under the personal conduct policy through the league, so we have to go through them with situations that happen off the field.''

Johnson was declared inactive with pay for the Tampa Bay game Sunday after his third arrest in 18 months last Thursday. He faces six misdemeanor weapons charges after a cache of guns was found at his house when a SWAT team issued a warrant directed at his friend, bodyguard and housemate Willie Posey, who was charged with felony marijuana possession.

Johnson was reprimanded by the team and all but given an ultimatum by general manager Jerry Angelo. Johnson issued a public apology Friday, but 12 hours later, he was in a downtown nightclub when Posey was shot to death after an altercation with a man who reportedly was bumping into Johnson on the dance floor. The Bears were expected to make an announcement about Johnson's future Monday, with Johnson reportedly telling players he believed he was going to be cut.

Instead, the Bears spent the day ''meeting internally'' about the situation, according to a statement from Angelo.

''It's a complicated matter that involves many parties,'' Angelo's statement read. ''We are pursuing a course of action and communicating with the league to reach a conclusion as quickly as possible.''

The discussions with the league and the NFL Players Association involved what falls under team jurisdiction and what is under the league umbrella. The new collective bargaining agreement has changed previous rules in favor of players, a league source said.

''The team can do anything it wants, but there are repercussions,'' an agent said.

Those repercussions might include the player or the union filing a grievance over any discipline Johnson might receive. That could lead to an emergency hearing before an arbitrator with the possibility of establishing precedent before all angles were thought through. The source said it even could be a situation where the team and the player agree on a course of action, only to see the union object and an arbitrator rule in its favor, effectively establishing a new NFL policy.

The new CBA changes the rules that existed last year, when the Philadelphia Eagles suspended Terrell Owens for four games for ''conduct detrimental to the team,'' then deactivated him for the last five games without pay.

That situation led Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to call the move ''restraint of trade'' and threaten to refer the matter to the antitrust subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Specter eventually backed down, and the Eagles cut Owens in the offseason, only to see him sign a three-year, $25 million deal with the rival Dallas Cowboys.

Johnson's situation might be a distraction to the Bears -- every question at Smith's weekly Monday news conference was connected to the matter -- but he has gotten a lot of support from the locker room.

The McCaskey family apparently has decided to allow the football people to make the final call on Johnson.

''Ultimately, of course, ownership has the final say on all matters,'' Smith said. ''But we do things as a group, and that's what we're deciding as a group, what's best for our football team.''

Johnson is the team's best interior pass rusher now that Tommie Harris is out for the season with a ruptured hamstring. Keeping him on the roster with the hope of activating him for the playoffs is certainly in the best interests of the team from a football perspective. Smith said he's not concerned about sending the wrong message or being perceived as putting winning above all else.

''First, you have to look at the player,'' Smith said. ''He's one of our own, and you can't kick him out of the family right away. We'll take our time to make the right decision because we're dealing with somebody's life right now, his livelihood.''

It remains to be seen what, if any, action the league takes against Johnson. It will wait to see the outcome of his court proceedings on the weapons charges, scheduled for Jan. 9. One source close to the player said there's a chance the case could be dropped because Johnson wasn't the subject of the investigation to begin with, and while the weapons aren't registered in Illinois, the source said they are registered in Arizona, where Johnson lists his permanent residence.

Even if things don't go well for Johnson, an appeals process would mean the league wouldn't take any action until next season and he'd be available for the playoffs.