If Sam Hurd had 75 catches and 1,435 yards and a long-term deal that had paid him $15 million guaranteed, the Bears likely would have deferred judgment on Hurd until the legal process runs its course.
But since Hurd has only eight catches this season, allegations that he was trafficking cocaine and marijuana were enough to drop him like he’s hot.
Bears G.M. Jerry Angelo said Friday that Hurd will be waived, according to multiple Bears beat writers attending Angelo’s press conference.
“There’s been a wrong, and we’ve acted,” Angelo said, via Sean Jensen of the Chicago Sun-Times. “We have a track record of doing that. . . . The right thing is to cut Sam Hurd.”
At the same time Angelo made like Karl Wallenda, making it clear that the Bears had no reason to know that Hurd was doing anything wrong. “There were no facts, there are no flags,” Angelo said. “I want to make that perfectly clear to the public.”
Fine, but all NFL teams have security officers who previously worked in law enforcement, and who have access to plenty of information that the average person doesn’t. When the Bears gave Hurd $1.35 million to sign a contract (money they’ll never be able to recover now that he has been cut), they could have known that federal authorities in Texas had $88,000 of his money -- and that the day before signing the contract Hurd submitted to an interview in the hopes of getting the money back.
Should they have known? That’s a matter for team president Ted Phillips to raise with the director of security.