Lance Briggs Enjoys the Change in Scenery, Then Returns to Chicago

Lance Briggs once vowed to never play in a Bears uniform again.

I guess that plan will have to wait until at least after 2013.

Lance Briggs just signed a six-year 36 million dollar deal with the Chicago Bears.  And nobody was as surprised as he was.

"I didn't think I was going to be a Chicago Bear. I actually thought I was headed to Washington. At the last minute, my agent (the Devil who wears Prada/Drew Rosenhaus) told me we had a deal with the Bears. We talked for a while, and I told him this was the deal that made sense," said Briggs after he signed the multi-year deal.

Wide receiver Bernard Berrian signing with the Vikings seemed to be a huge factor when Briggs considered Chicago in the mix.  Because apparently when a team loses a good player, you realize that there is much more green on that side.

"I do think one of the most important factors was Bernard signing with Minnesota," Briggs said. "You figure if you have four top players and one of the top players you're trying to keep signs with someone else, obviously you've got more money allotted to go to other players. And then you can make a better deal with someone else."

He also looked at San Fransisco as a possible spot that would be better than the Bears.  But they lost their ability to give Briggs as much as he wants.

"They kind of backed off me right before free agency," he said. "My idea was to put myself and Patrick Willis together and go play ball. I've been around one great linebacker. I know the importance of two great linebackers being around each other. But with the contract the 49ers gave end Justin Smith (reportedly six years, $45 million), I thought [that] was similar to what they would have worked out with me."

But Briggs doesn't want the fans to be hurt by him exhausting every other opportunity to go somewhere else before crawling back to the Bears for a deal that was below what he felt he deserved in the free agent market.

"This is a business," Briggs said. "If you look at it any other way, you're going to hurt yourself. You're going to get your feelings hurt, get your hopes up."

So welcome back Briggs, hopefully the rest Chicago can welcome you back, because you are obviously ecstatic to be here.

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