The Chicago Bears are on the verge of splitting with star linebacker Roquan Smith after he recently announced publicly his desire to be traded. The Bears have already removed Smith from the physically unable to perform list on Wednesday, which opens up the possibility for Chicago to mete out a financially painful punishment to the player for every day he misses practice in training camp, as noted by Sean Hammond of Shaw Local News Network:
“According to the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association, players under the fifth-year option on their rookie contract – as Smith is now – can be fined $40,000 for every day of practice missed during training camp. The team could also fine him the equivalent of one game paycheck for every preseason game he misses.”
Roquan Smith is still due to make $9.735 million in total this year but to bleed 40 grand a day of missed practice will definitely leave a huge hole in the pocket of anyone, regardless of how much a player is making in a season. That being said, it appears that the Bears haven't yet implemented that penalty on Roquan Smith. Doing so might only backfire on them, as that could even widen the dissonance between the Bears management and the team's fans, who have not shied away on social media from letting their true feelings known about the handling of the Smith situation.
The Bears play the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday at Soldier Field for their first game of the 2022 NFL preseason.
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