Briggs fires back at Houshmandzadeh

Four-time Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs had a quick response to Seahawks wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh’s vow to show Bears GM Jerry Angelo what he missed by not signing the former Bengal when he was a free agent last off-season.

“He sounds like a bitter guy,” Briggs said. “Maybe he wanted to play in Chicago. If he’s going to show what he’s going to do on Sunday, I’ll tell you what: ‘So are we, so am I.’ I’ve been playing against T.J. since college, so I know what type of competitor he is. The guy can play.
But his personal feelings toward us, I could care less.”

Houshmandzadeh was at Oregon State while Briggs was at Arizona. The Seahawks’ wide receiver also claimed that he could beat Bears cornerbacks 95 percent of the time.

“I’ll take a Bears corner over Houshmandzadeh any day,” Briggs said.

It’s interesting to review Angelo’s comments back in March after Houshmandzadeh signed with the Seahawks.

"Houshmandzadeh is a fine receiver,” Angelo said. “Would we have entertained him? Yes, but we wanted to see what his marketplace was. In this case, we felt like (what he received from the Seahawks, $40 million over five years with $15 million guaranteed) was an exorbitant amount of money. Remember, he was a No. 2 in Cincinnati (behind Chad Ochocinco). That's not to say that what Seattle did wasn't right for them. Their situation is different than ours. They had an inordinate amount of injuries with receivers, and they felt like they needed to get somebody that was established and healthy.

"A lot of teams would have liked to have had Houshmandzadeh. But he's going to be 32 (on Saturday), and the price that you're paying for that receiver we felt was very high. You have to look at economics when you look at players. Who doesn't want Houshmandzadeh? But you have to look at the economics: What are the implications to the cap going forward and what does that prevent us from doing in other areas within our team and/or in free agency?"