View from the Moon: A Super Bowl in March?

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Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011
7:18 p.m.

By John Mullin
CSNChicago.com

A Super Bowl in March? It could just about happen.

CSNChicago.com spent some time with an NFL player rep talking over some of the dizzying details of the collective bargaining agreement negotiations. The result was a few new perspectives on whats on the table, and what the upshot could be.

One was simple calendar math and the Super Bowl. If the 18-game season being sought by the NFL owners comes to be, you add two weeks to the season for those games. Fold in a second in-season off week and now youre adding three weeks. Owners are offering Labor Day plus the second off-week, but thats pretty much what the players already have most years.

The 2010 Super Bowl was played Feb. 6. Last seasons was on Feb. 7. Add three weeks to that and you are just about into March.

What also happens is that offseason programs usually begin in March, meaning that recovery time, whether from offseason surgeries or just general healing, loses almost a month.

A nasty domino chain.

The consensus does seem to still be that nothing will settle by Mar. 4 and probably not until right up against the season itself. The NFL walking out of a negotiating session last week isnt definitive in any respect except that people looking to get something done arent walking out of meetings.

Staff stuff
Offensive line coach Mike Tice was expected to be in play for job openings this offseason after the job he did through the Bears 2010 season. The Tennessee Titans, under new head coach Mike Munchak, have interest in Tice as offensive coordinator, as first reported by the Chicago Tribune on Sunday.

The Bears would need to give permission for Tice to interview, given that he has one year remaining on his Chicago contract and that this is not for a head-coaching job.

This puts the Bears, and Tice, in an interesting situation. Lovie Smith is a supporter of staff getting opportunities, and assistants Chris Tabor (special teams) and Eric Washington (defensive line) already have moved to new gigs.

But Tice is a core member of the current Bears staff and had considerable support to become the Bears offensive coordinator before the decision was made to hire Mike Martz. If the Bears arrow continues to point upward, Tice very likely has a future in Chicago. He was an integral part of the in-season turnaround by the offense and already has considerable clout in game-planning.

Oh, and Munchak was the Titans offensive line coach before Jeff Fisher left this offseason.

John "Moon" Mullin is CSNChicago.com's Bears Insider, and appears regularly on Bears Postgame Live and Chicago Tribune Live. Follow Moon on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Bears information.

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