General Manager Jerry Angelo confirmed that the Bears are severing all ties with wide receiver Sam Hurd in the wake of information relative to alleged involvement with a sizeable drug ring.
But the head of football operations also took harsh issue with critics who quickly claimed that the Bears failed to adequately check Hurds background and character. Angelo strongly defended the work the organization does in general and did specifically with Hurd on background research, acknowledging that, no system is foolproof.
Angelo then lit into opinions that the Bears should have known about Hurds alleged drug connections.
Theres no foundation for anybody to say that, no facts, no flags that anybody can present tangibly to say otherwise, Angelo said. I want to make that perfectly clear to the public and the fans: We did our homework. We do our due diligence. We did everything you could possibly do given the information we can allocate.
The Bears have begun an in-depth review of their information-gathering, not unusual in situations like Hurd or defensive Tank Johnsons weapons case, where very large issues were undetected.
Sometimes there are glitches, Angelo said. In this case there are none. I can sit here and tell you with total transparency that we did everything we could do in terms of our research and there was nothing we found that would create a flag or alert or real concern in Sam Hurds case.