Verbal Smackdown: Sharper v. Bears Tight Ends

Darren Sharper has exchanged some unfriendly words with the Bears’ corps of tight ends. The unpleasantness was kicked off by Sharper himself when he uttered the following during a conference call with Chicago reporters:

"I’m never concerned about the tight end. … If a tight end catches a ball on me, then I need to be fired."

As Bugs Bunny would say, “Them’s fightin’ words.”

And yes, the Bears tight ends did immediately hear about it (probably from one of the beat writers involved in the conference call). Here was Desmond Clark’s somewhat sarcastic response:

"I guess when you’re the best safety in the league, first ballot Hall-of-Famer, the Brett Favre of safeties, you can do that. I guess he’s a shutdown safety. When you’re a shutdown safety, that’s what you do."

Clark also said, again sarcastically (I’m assuming), that he might as well not even show up Sunday because Sharper has “already shut [him] down and [he’s] not going to catch any passes.”

Well Desmond, if you would like to flip that sarcasm to the literal side and actually not show up on Sunday, I would consider it a great favor to my team. Perhaps you could also prevail upon a couple of your teammates to take the weekend off with you – Brian Urlacher, Devin Hester and Tommie Harris maybe? The four of you could go fishing. And don’t worry – the team that’s left will probably have no trouble beating the Vikings.

I don’t know about this stuff. I mean, I like Darren Sharper, think he’s a great player and a handsome fellow and all that, but should any defensive player for the Vikings be talking smack with tight ends? Especially after all the trouble we’ve had covering tight ends for about the last ten years? Not saying that’s even Darren’s fault – mostly I think it’s the linebackers being bad at recognition and dropping into the zone where they’re supposed to. But still, it’s all one defense. The same defense that gave up 7 catches for 96 yards to Tony Gonzalez a couple weeks ago, most of that in the second half. Yeah, I know, he’s Tony Gonzalez, best in the business and all that – but Desmond Clark’s no slouch either, and with the limp-ass offense the Bears sport, you gotta believe the tight end’s gonna get plenty of action. Bottom line: Darren needs to kind of close his yap on this one. Just stand there and look pretty till Sunday Darren. Then pick Griese off a couple times and make us all happy campers.