On this Rashaan Salaam thing, you’ve given it a lot of thought. All the way back from Platteville, you’ve turned it over in your mind. That and wondering just how much road kill it takes to make a log of Wisconsin summer sausage.
You are puzzled. Not about the sausage log. You figure that out in the first 50 miles. Six and half. You are puzzled because Salaam seemed so eager to be a Bear.
You know if it were just a few more bucks or length of contract, those things can be worked out.
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Listen, you could take up a collection around town if it is only money. You would throw in $20 yourself, just so you wouldn’t have to watch Lewis Tillman bounce backwards at the goal line again.
However much money it is, even if it isn’t Ki-jana Carter kind of money, no one is going to take Salaam’s Heisman away from him. However much it is, as Salaam said himself when he was hanging with the Bears, it’s more than he has now.
So, where is he? Why isn’t he back in Platteville waiting for the cattle to cross the highway with the rest of the Bears? You suspect it has to be more than money.
You don’t even think it is such a big deal that Salaam isn’t there. Marshall Faulk, who was last year’s Salaam, missed a lot of training camp and it didn’t bother him. Faulk gained 143 yards in the first game for the Colts.
Then you see it. You see where Salaam’s mom puts her finger on the problem between the Bears and their absent rookie running back. It is not about money at all, or incentives or voidable contracts, none of that.
It is about . . . let’s get this right, “being treated as a human being,” so Khalada Salaam told the Tribune’s Fred Mitchell.
Uh, oh. This is more serious than you thought.
Any football player who wants to be treated like a human being might as well disconnect the phone, because the NFL is not going to be calling.
The last verifiable human being in the NFL, and it is still on film somewhere, was Garo Yepremian.
You don’t want to be too hasty in this. You check the roster to make sure. You see monster back. And strong safety. And pulling guard. And tight end. But, nope, no human being.
Twice you saw Salaam play in college, the dramatic Hail Mary win against Michigan where he didn’t matter and the loss to Nebraska where he did. Neither time did it occur to you that he was a human being. Could you have missed something?
You think back to draft day when the Bears were so happy to have found Salaam still unselected at No. 21 and you do not recall the announcement: “The Bears draft human being Rashaan Salaam of Colorado.”
No, no. They drafted a franchise player. An impact player. They drafted a three-down back. A fixture. A stud. A workhorse. A future legend. That is what they will be paying for.
You do not remember any of the 20 others drafted ahead of Salaam being human beings either, so this is not just a Bears’ thing.
And when Cincinnati gives Carter, who did not win the Heisman, that $7.1 million bonus, $19.2 million over seven years and a contract that voids after four, you cannot remember many human beings getting treated like that.
The Bears have already offered Salaam more money than backs who have signed and were drafted ahead of him, an indication that they may be a little too obviously needy in this. Maybe they should have been a little less enthusiastic, a little more curious about just how human this guy is.
Salaam is only a rookie. Not even a college graduate. Not even a college senior. But his agent should know better. Some things you just don’t ask for. Be treated as a human being?
Bears fans can only hope this isn’t a deal-breaker.